Josh Metellus was in the Twin Cities when the Minnesota Vikings hired Brian Flores. Once Flores moved into Minnesota’s facility in Eagan, Metellus made his way upstairs to introduce himself.
“If you’ve ever been in his office, he has just a list of everything he thinks just thrown onto his wall,” said Metellus. “Everything that he ever thought of what the defense could be, he just throws onto the wall.”
The Vikings took Metellus in the sixth round of the 2020 draft and only used him in one third-down package. Growing up, he had played all over the field but felt that NFL coaches would pigeonhole him as a safety. Flores said he had watched Metellus’ film and thought he could play all over.
“In my head, I was thinking…I have to pick one and just master that,” said Metellus. “It took me a while to realize how much we were going to be doing. But once I did, you know, he knew I was ready for it. He wouldn’t have done it if he didn’t know I could do it.”
Metellus transformed into a multi-positional athlete last season and thrived under Flores, starting all 17 games. Flores doesn’t have a system. Instead, he designs a defense around his players by studying their film and maximizing their abilities.
“He exceeded every expectation I had as a defensive coordinator,” said Harrison Phillips. “I’d say one of the things he does best is…hiding our handicaps as a defense or finding ways to make weaknesses into strengths.
“Today was our first day of an install. To show what he had from last year to this year in one day is like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re going to be really rolling.’”
In the offseason, Minnesota added Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Blake Cashman to bolster the defense. The Vikings ranked 11th in defensive DVOA last season despite having a thin secondary and trouble generating four-man pressure. Flores designed a system where most players lined up on the line of scrimmage.
He either dropped eight or rushed six, forcing the quarterback to quickly decipher whether Minnesota was blitzing him or using extra defenders in coverage. The Vikings shut out the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 14, but Zac Taylor and the Cincinnati Bengals appeared to figure it out a week later. Old friend Jake Browning and the Bengals won 27-24, and Minnesota’s next three opponents scored 30 or more points on them.
But Flores should have more to work with following free agency and the draft. Greenard is Minnesota’s replacement for Danielle Hunter. Blake Cashman brings a pass-coverage element the Vikings didn’t have last year. But Van Ginkel might be the most interesting addition. The Miami Dolphins took Van Ginkel in the fifth round of the 2019 draft. Flores was in his first year as Miami’s head coach then, and he has ideas of how to use Van Ginkel in Minnesota.
“He’s got the potential to be a chess piece for us that we use, possibly similar [to] Metellus,” said Flores. “So, we’ll see how it all shakes out. You never really know until we get on the field and see how much he can handle, but my experience with him says that he can do a lot, handle a lot, and we’ll try to do as much as we can with him.”
It’s April, and the Vikings are starting to install their defense. But they still need to integrate the rookies, and nobody knows what it will look like in Week 1. Flores’ mind is whirring, though. He’s already formulating what his defense will look like. “I enjoy football chatter,” Flores said, cracking a smile. “It’s a lot of fun for me.”
Metellus returned to Flores’ office after a recent California vacation. He saw the writing on the walls again and wondered what his role would be this year. “I went in his office to see the board, see my name,” he said. “Now I know what this entails. We had a better understanding now of what we’re gonna do this season.”
The fun is just getting started.
