'Aggressive by nature,' Brian Flores follows his gut for chance to remake Vikings defense

Everything Brian Flores heard from his three children steered his coaching search toward the Vikings. His 6-year-old daughter, Liliana, took her first steps five years ago at U.S. Bank Stadium, on photo day at Super Bowl LII while Flores was a Patriots assistant. For his two boys, Miles (age 10) and Max (age 9), it was "Minnesota and Minnesota only."

"They're big Justin Jefferson fans," said the Vikings' new defensive coordinator. "So when we accepted the position, there was a lot of 'Griddying' going on."

Flores pulled his name out of the Cardinals' head coaching search and accepted the Vikings' job for deeper reasons, though. He'd left his interview in Minnesota on Jan. 26 believing the Vikings were a team with which he could grow as a coach. He felt Kevin O'Connell, the second-year head coach Flores first met as a Patriots rookie quarterback in 2008, shared his football philosophy. At the end, he said, he trusted his instinct.

"You almost get a gut feeling. I think we've all kind of had those," Flores said. "This was the place for me and my family. This was the right opportunity. It's funny. I was in church a couple weeks ago as this was all going on and the pastor, Brian Edmonds, in Pittsburgh, he said, 'In life, there are instances where you can either have control or you can have growth. And you can't have both.' That hit me pretty good. I just felt like this was a great opportunity for growth."

The partnership O'Connell and Flores believe they can create will be central to the Vikings' hopes in 2023, with schematic and personnel changes seemingly in store for a defense that ranked near the bottom of the league the past three seasons and has a number of veterans playing on expensive contracts.

O'Connell fired Ed Donatell after the Vikings gave up 427 points in the regular season and allowed 431 yards in a wild-card playoff loss to the Giants. In Flores, O'Connell will have a coordinator who described himself as "aggressive by nature" and has historically used many of the blitzes and man-coverage techniques he learned in New England under Bill Belichick. The Vikings, who need to clear more than $20 million in cap space before free agency starts in a month, must quickly determine how many of their current starters fit the defense Flores will construct, and how they'll approach a draft where they currently have only four picks.

Flores, the former Dolphins head coach who interviewed for three jobs this offseason, accepted the Vikings' defensive coordinator job a day before he was scheduled to talk to the Broncos about theirs. Flores and Ejiro Evero were the Vikings' top two choices for the job; the Vikings hired Flores a day after the Panthers hired Evero.

O'Connell has seemed eager for a defense that will challenge receivers in coverage and pressure quarterbacks more than the Vikings did in 2022, when they blitzed only 18.9% of the time and pressured QBs on only 19% of their dropbacks. After he fired Donatell, his prompt interest in Flores indicated O'Connell was open to a new defensive approach.

"He's somebody that I targeted immediately," O'Connell said. "I knew it would be very competitive to get Brian here. Having been a [play-caller] for a championship defense before [in New England] and what he's been able to do as a head coach was not lost on me throughout the whole process."

The 41-year-old Flores went 24-25 in three seasons with the Dolphins, winning 19 games his final two years before owner Stephen Ross fired him. He sued the NFL, the Dolphins, the Giants and the Broncos three weeks later, alleging racial discrimination in the teams' head coach interview processes while claiming Ross had pressured him to lose games on purpose and tamper with a quarterback (reportedly Tom Brady) who was under contract with another team. After an NFL investigation, the league revoked the Dolphins' 2023 first-round pick and fined Ross $1.5 million.

Flores, who is Black and Latino, said Wednesday his lawsuit is still active but declined to discuss it further. He praised the Vikings' commitment to diversity. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is one of eight Black general managers in the NFL; there are three people of color among the five highest-ranking officials in Adofo-Mensah's football personnel department. O'Connell's staff of 22 assistant coaches includes eight people of color, including two coordinators (Flores and special teams coordinator Matt Daniels).

"Diversity is important to me. I'm not going to run away from that," Flores said. "But when I walk in this building, you see diversity, really, across the board in every department. That's exciting, too. Obviously, the lawsuit is ongoing, but I'm where my feet are. Right now, my feet are right here in Eagan."

He could add another coach to replace defensive line assistant A'lique Terry, who became Oregon's offensive line coach this week, and the Vikings could look to develop internal candidates to replace Flores in the event he gets another head coaching opportunity next year.

"I think any other opportunities that may present themselves in the future, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Flores said. "Obviously, I have goals and things that I would like to accomplish in the future, but those can change. I'm happy right now in Minnesota, I really am."