On November 25, NFL insider Jason La Canfora reported in the Washington Post that people around the league didn’t expect Brian Flores’ pending lawsuit to lower his odds of getting a head coaching position in the next cycle.
“That shouldn’t prevent the former Dolphins coach from getting another shot. He has done stellar work with the Vikings,” wrote La Canfora. “Flores surely learned from some of his missteps with the Dolphins, and if the Vikings make the playoffs, his work will be impossible to ignore.”
That was 48 hours before the Chicago Bears beat the Minnesota Vikings 12-10, sending them into the bye week at 6-6. The Denver Broncos had handed Joshua Dobbs his first loss the week before, but the Vikings were still in the playoff mix. They had winnable games in Vegas and Cincinnati out of the bye, then two games against the Detroit Lions and one against the Green Bay Packers.
Flores’ defense had only given up more than 20 points during Minnesota’s five-game win streak that preceded the Denver game. He had created a unique system, adopting a college defense he learned while working for the Pittsburgh Steelers last year. The Steelers share a practice facility with the University of Pittsburgh football program, and Flores incorporated a version of Pitt defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi’s system.
Flores would pack the line of scrimmage with players, then often drop eight in coverage or drop six. The result was unprecedented blitz rates and a meaningful improvement in Minnesota’s defense. The Vikings gave up 388.7 yards per game under Ed Donatell in 2022, second-worst in the league. A year later, they finished with 333.2 yards per game. Flores had turned Minnesota’s defense into a league-average unit in a year and coached the Dolphins as recently as 2021. Why wouldn’t he be a head-coaching candidate?
“I understand the question, I really do,” Flores responded to a reporter who asked about La Canfora listing Flores as a head coaching candidate.
My message to our guys yesterday was we’ve got 35 guaranteed days. That’s all we got that’s guaranteed. I asked them to put everything into these 35 days. I can’t give that message and not heed that message. My focus is on these guys, this team, these next five games because that’s all we really have. I understand the question, but that’s where my focus is.
All the other stuff, I ask them to block it out, and I’m blocking it out myself because I think you gotta lead by example and I’m certainly going to do that. I know that that’s out there, I’m not blind to any of that. But, I’m really focused on the task at hand.
The next week, the Vikings shut out the Las Vegas Raiders on the road. But the defense faltered afterward. Old friend Jake Browning and the Cincinnati Bengals spammed dagger a week later and won 27-24 in overtime. Detroit put up 30 points in both of their wins, and Green Bay hung 33 on Minnesota at U.S. Bank Stadium.
One hundred and twenty points in four-straight losses is hard for opposing teams to overlook. So is a lawsuit against the league, or Flores’ legal action against Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, who allegedly offered to pay him six figures to lose games. But Flores had gone 10-6 with Miami in 2020. A year later, he squeezed a 9-8 record out of the Dolphins, who had a seven-game losing streak at the beginning of the season. He had worked under Mike Tomlin for a year and got the most out of Minnesota’s undermanned defense.
Eight teams had vacancies in this year’s coaching cycle, but nobody interviewed Flores. Many great coaches didn’t get jobs this offseason, including Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll, and Mike Vrabel. But La Canfora reported that Flores was a candidate in November, yet nobody interviewed him.
That should benefit the Vikings, though. We shouldn’t hold Minnesota’s late defensive collapse on Flores. He had maximized a flawed unit all season, and crucial players like Byron Murphy and Jordan Hicks missed time with injuries. Furthermore, the Vikings’ 2022 draft class did the defense no favors. Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth Jr. hardly played. Ivan Pace Jr. passed Brian Asamoah on the depth chart, and Jaylin Williams took Akayleb Evans’ spot late in the season.
Flores did the most with what he had. Almost everyone saw the value he offered throughout the season, and that’s why the La Canfora report was so concerning at the time. Flores should be able to build on the defense he created last year, and the front office could help him by re-signing Danielle Hunter, drafting well, and adding to the defense in free agency. Ultimately, Flores was likely focused on the group he had in Minnesota because he knew he might end up staying.
