The Dolphins announced their 2026 coaching staff under new head coach Jeff Hafley last week with a number of previously unannounced hires on the list.
On offense, Miami added tight ends coach Ron Middleton and retained assistant TEs coach Lemuel Jeanpierre, and assistant wide receivers coach Jonathan Krause.
Middleton did not coach in 2025, but previously served as the tight ends coach for the Jets (2021-2024), Jaguars (2013-2020), and Buccaneers (2004-2006) with stints at Alabama and Duke between 2006 and 2013. A former tight end himself, Middleton spent a decade in the NFL with 118 appearances and 56 starts. He primarily featured as a blocker and won a Super Bowl with Washington in 1991.
Jeanpierre spent the last six seasons working with the Dolphins’ offensive line, with five years as an assistant and one leading the room in 2021. Like Middleton, Jeanpierre played in the NFL and won a Super Bowl (2013 with the Seahawks), though he lined up at guard, not the position he now coaches.
Krause has been with the Dolphins since 2023, first as an offensive assistant before he was promoted to his current role in 2024. He previously served as the wide receivers coach at UNLV (2021-2022) and San Diego State (2023), with earlier jobs at Vanderbilt and Oregon. Krause, a former wide receiver, also won a Super Bowl (2014 with the Patriots), though he only played in the regular season for the Eagles in 2015.
Kent State special teams coordinator/tight ends coach CJ Conrad is also expected to join Hafley’s staff, per CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz. The former Kentucky tight end spent one training camp with the Giants before returning to his alma mater as a graduate assistant in 2020. He then moved to Eastern Kentucky as a tight ends coach in 2023 and landed his job at Kent State last year.
The Dolphins’ new defense staff includes assistant defensive backs/nickels coach DeShawn Shead and quality control coach Siriki Diabate.
Shead was a member of the Legion of Boom on the same Super Bowl team as Jeanpierre. After a seven-year playing career, Shead returned to Seattle in 2023 as an assistant defensive backs coach before taking the same position in Miami the following year. He will not add nickels coach to his title, continuing a trend of NFL teams hiring a dedicated coach for that specific position.
Diabate is getting his first full-time opportunity in the NFL after previous internships with the Bills, Cowboys, Eagles, and Packers. Diabate played at Syracuse and began his coaching career at his alma mater in 2013. He worked for Colgate from 2015 to 2017 before taking a linebackers coach jobs at Middle Tennessee (2017-2021) and UConn (2022-2025). At the latter stop, he had the additional title of run game coordinator.