One of the things Wes Phillips admires about Brian Flores’ scheme is that the Minnesota Vikings’ defense constantly enforces its will.
“A lot of times with Flo’s scheme,” Phillips said on Wednesday, “they’re kind of holding the pen, schematically.”
Typically, the offense dictates terms. Offensive coordinators like Phillips design plays with the knowledge of a defense’s rules, creating open rushing lanes or receivers. The deep receiver moves the safety to create a one-on-one underneath; a receiver with an option route should dart toward the middle of the field if it looks like the corner is defending the boundary.
However, Flores’ scheme changes that dynamic. He’ll put eight guys at the line of scrimmage and drop six. He’ll have Harrison Smith stand near the offensive line to present a single-high safety look, then race back into the secondary to double-cover receivers beelining down the field. Flores will even have Smith and other veteran players make checks at the line based on what the offense presents after breaking the huddle.
“It takes smart players,” Phillips explained. “If you just look through history, the old Buddy Ryan defense with the Chicago Bears, they used to have what they called AFC calls and BTFs, automatic front coverage, or blitz the formation.”
Buddy Ryan is Rex and Rob Ryan’s father. He coached in the NFL from 1961 to 1995 and died in 2016 at age 85. He was Minnesota’s defensive line coach in 1976 and 1977, overseeing the Purple People Eaters, before the Bears hired him as their defensive coordinator. Buddy Ryan’s aggressive 46 defense became the foundation of Chicago’s Super Bowl team in 1985.
Ryan named the scheme after Doug Plank, Chicago’s strong safety, who served as its surrogate linebacker. Josh Metellus plays the closest role in Flores’ defense. The automatic front coverage (AFC) and blitz-the-formation (BTF) calls became foundational to the defense. Ryan allowed the players to adapt to what they saw on the other side of the line of scrimmage, creating uncertainty for opposing offenses.
“If they called BTF, they were blitzing, but they were blitzing based on the formation and attacking,” Phillips explained. “So they would come up with the plan, but you also had to have a Mike (middle) linebacker who was smart enough to see and recognize and get you into the right calls, and everyone had to be on the same page.
“There were times where maybe a more talented player who couldn’t absorb some of that information wasn’t able to get on the field just due to the above-the-neck stuff that was required.”
Flores leans on Harrison Smith, Josh Metellus, and Eric Wilson to make checks at the line. In doing so, he cedes some control to create a more dynamic defense.
“Having a player who can go out there and make checks or make calls, it’s like having another play-caller out there,” Flores said in mid-December. “The players see it differently than we can from the sideline. There’s mannerisms, there’s alignments, there’s things that we really can’t see.
“Coaching is about giving these guys information and allowing them to take it, have ownership of it, and then execute.”
Phillips knows how the 46 defense works because his grandfather, Bum, coached against Buddy Ryan. Bum and Phillips’ father, Wade, also were defensive coaches. Furthermore, Phillips and Kevin O’Connell, an offensive coordinator with the Los Angeles Rams before arriving in Minnesota, bounce ideas off Flores to fine-tune the Vikings’ offense.
It’s a symbiotic relationship fostered by continuity. Aside from Ed Donatell, who the Vikings fired after his first season, O’Connell has had the same offensive, defensive, and special teams coordinators since taking over in 2022.
However, that may change this offseason. Flores is in the final year of his contract, and he could leave for another defensive coordinator or head coaching position. Flores still has a pending lawsuit against the league and three of its teams, so it’s unlikely an ownership group will hire him as their head coach.
But unlike in past years when he was under contract with the Vikings, another team can sign him as their defensive coordinator. Under league rules, coaches under contract may leave only for a higher position. Over the past two years, that would have meant Flores would have had to accept a head coaching position to break his contract with Minnesota.
Still, O’Connell feels confident Flores will return next season.
“I absolutely want Brian Flores to be the defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings as long as we can have him,” O’Connell said on Monday, adding his contract discussions with Flores “go back a long way,” and that the two have had “very good dialogue” about it recently.
On Wednesday, Flores echoed that he and O’Connell had had good dialogue recently, and that he said he loves Minnesota and working for the Vikings. Still, he’s leaving his options open, if only to garner leverage in the negotiations. Flores’ understanding of control extends beyond the gridiron. He knows he’s the one with the pen.
