Brian Flores. Good coordinator. We knew this. There’s a reason why he’s been mentioned as a likely future head coach candidate again, even if it may not occur this offseason.

Just look at how Flores has turned around a defense that ranked 30th in the NFL in scoring a year ago into one that ranks 12th now, largely with the same cast of players. In fact, we’d be remiss to point out that the Vikings already moved on from two All-Pro defenders in Patrick Peterson and Eric Kendricks. But that’s beside the point.

Vikings fans are not unfamiliar with the greatness of Flores. Many other fanbases have witnessed the impact Flores has had on the defense too. But it’s not just the fans obviously, players are a big advocate for the former Miami Dolphins head coach too.

NFLPA votes Brian Flores as top-5 defensive coordinator in NFL

On Thursday, the NFL Players Association revealed new data from a survey in which all players were allowed to cast a vote for the best offensive, defensive, and special teams coordinator today. You can probably already guess Flores made the list.

After over 750 defensive players casted votes, the survey says Flores ranks as the fourth best defensive coordinator in the NFL in 2024.

Players were asked to rate their offensive, defensive & special teams coordinators this fall. We're publishing the top 5 to show the positive impact coaches can have & ensure players' voices are heard ahead of the hiring cycle.

🔗: https://t.co/NKtb2Tqtem pic.twitter.com/UpEXkGkdmB

— NFLPA (@NFLPA) January 4, 2024

Related: Antoine Winfield Jr’s Pro Bowl Snub is NOT Sitting Well with Dad

Brian Flores isn’t the only top-ranked coordinator on Vikings’ staff

The improvement on defense has been impossible to ignore. Flores deserves a lot of credit for his work. But there’s another coordinator on the Vikings’ staff who graded well in the NFLPA coaching survey. Matt Daniels, who is in his second season with the team, was ranked third in the player survey, among NFL special teams coordinators.

Notably, Daniels learned part of his craft from the top-ranked special teams coordinator on the list, John Fassel of the Dallas Cowboys. Daniels, a former safety out of Duke, also has spent a lot of time working with defensive backs.

In addition to his exemplary work as a special teams coordinator, some believe Daniels could also have a future as a defensive coordinator too. Others have said, “That guy is going to be a superstar in this league.“

So far, Daniels is off to a great start, and who knows? Maybe someday the 34-year-old coordinator can trade in his position for a more prominent title, like head football coach.

Related: Will Harrison Smith Return to the Vikings Next Season?

New Gophers defensive coordinator will be a great leader, likely from the outside

Fleck wants someone who can lead the defense. Not just the players on that side of the ball, but the coaches too. PJ made it clear in his National Signing Day press conference this week that he likes the foundation of his defense and the new defensive coordinator isn’t going to come in and make wholesale changes.

Related: Minnesota Gophers National Signing Day Signees – 2024

An incredible leader, great presence, really intelligent. And a great connector of people, because that’s the thing. I’ve got three staff members in there. They’re all good. They’re all signed for the following year. So this isn’t like bringing in an entire staff and starting over. We’ve got incredible recruiters and incredible coaches, but you’re looking for that presence in front of the room. That leader in front of the room that’s going to be able to add to what we do.

PJ Fleck on what he’s looking for in the Gophers next DC

While the head coach may not want a completely new identity on defense, he appears determined to hire someone from the outside. Fleck used language like ‘add to what we do‘ and talked about how the new coordinator “won’t be bringing in an entire staff and starting over”.

Minnesota Gophers defensive coaches show talent, lack experience

PJ talked about the three coaches already on defense that he likes, but he must not like them enough to consider promotions to defensive coordinator. Now, part of PJ’s hesitation to promote from within has to do with the age of his assistant coaches on that side of the football.

Their safeties coach, 31-year-old Danny Collins, is expected to call the defense at the Quick Lane Bowl. The defensive line coach, Winston DeLattiboudere, has played more college football in the last three years than he has coached.

Related: Minnesota Gophers Football Transfer Portal Tracker 2023-24

The only defensive coach over the age of 32 is cornerbacks coach and co-defensive coordinator, Nick Monroe, who graduated from my alma mater — the prestigious St. Cloud State University — in 2001 has only been on Minnesota’s staff for one season… and it was the worst defensive season in the last five years.

Does that mean Monroe would be a bad hire? No, but it’s just another reason why an outside hire makes more sense than keeping in in-house. So… who are some rumored candidates? The job has been unfilled for weeks now. Well, there aren’t any real hot rumors out there, mostly because they haven’t started the search yet.

Too much going on to focus on coaching search

Why? Because there’s too much going on right now for him to commit the requisite attention needed to operate a proper assistant coaching search. His focus will shift to hiring a new DC, after the bowl game is over.

“I want to be able to give 100% of my attention, like I just did [for recruiting leading up to National Signing Day]. That was 100% of my attention. My mind was nowhere else. For me to be able to put 100% of my attention right now into the hire, I’d be shortchanging our team, our staff, our players and the state of Minnesota.

I have an obligation to make sure that I do my due diligence, and not spottingly. There’s a lot going on right now. We have bowl prep, we got the transfer portal, we got NIL fundraising and we’ve got obviously Signing Day. We got all these things going on. And oh yeah, by the way, you gotta go make an important, really, really massive hire.”

PJ Fleck on when to expect a new DC

As mentioned briefly, earlier in this blog, the Minnesota Gophers bowl game is on December 26 (Quick Lane Bowl) vs the Bowling Green Falcons. Fleck wants to move swiftly once he does shift focus to hiring a new defensive coordinator.

Related: Top In-State 2024 Recruit Koi Perich Officially Signs with Gophers

Expect hire to happen by first week of January

The Gophers would prefer to have a DC in place for January and February recruiting, both in the transfer portal and at the high school level, not to mention eventual preparation for the Spring Game. So, while Fleck is asking for patience, he himself expects a hire to be made in the first week of January.

“I’ve told our team, be patient. It’s going to be a little while. I’d like to be able to have that done in the first week of January, because this is about getting to see people face to face. Again, I owe it to our team to do the due diligence necessary to find them the best leader of the defense, and our staff has been incredibly supportive of that.

PJ Fleck on when to expect a new DC

Here is the entire PJ Fleck presser. He talks about the defensive coordinator hire at the 43-minute mark.

So that’s exactly what he went out and got by hiring former Miami Dolphins head coach and longtime Patriots assistant, Brian Flores, as the Vikings’ new defensive coordinator. Flores brings one of the most bold and blitz-happy (mostly man-to-man) defensive schemes of any candidate being considered. A complete 180-degree turnaround from what they deployed in 2022-23.

Brian Flores’ Blitz Rates by season with the #Dolphins

2019: 31.6% 11th in the NFL
2020: 40.8% 2nd in the NFL
2021: 39.6% 2nd in the NFL#Vikings defense is in for quite the change in philosophy. https://t.co/xuqjLmyNYM

— Matt Anderson (@MattAnderson_8) February 7, 2023

Donatell never blitzed and sat back in off-man zone coverages for the majority of snaps. Pre-snap movement was minimal, sometimes non-existent. Flores, on the other hand, plays a lot of man coverage and loves to walk guys around pre-snap, threatening different blitzes that may or may not engage.

Quarterbacks and offensive linemen have to respect all of the possible rushers, too. Because Flores has shown his willingness and propensity to brings extra guys. This puts a lot of pressure on opposing offenses to figure out where these blitzes are going to come from or if they will come at all. What they’re seeing pre-snap is not going to be what unfolds once the play clock shuts off.

Below is a quick video breaking down how Flores’ defense confuses a quarterback and offensive line. For a more in-depth dive, you can watch this 10-minute video on YouTube.

Brian Flores’ Blitz Rates by season with the #Dolphins

2019: 31.6% 11th in the NFL
2020: 40.8% 2nd in the NFL
2021: 39.6% 2nd in the NFL#Vikings defense is in for quite the change in philosophy. https://t.co/xuqjLmyNYM

— Matt Anderson (@MattAnderson_8) February 7, 2023

Brian Flores Culture Shock

The hiring of Brian Flores won’t just flip the script on the Vikings when it comes to defensive scheme and on-field mentality. He brings a big personality and beefed up resume to the coaching staff. Flores demands perfection from his players and respect from those he works with/for.

A Bill Belichick protege, Flores is soft spoken during interviews but that’s not the case when he roams the sideline. Nor is it his reputation in the locker room or out on the practice field. Around the league, the 41-year-old Brooklyn native is known for his high expectations and bold coaching strategies. Here’s what Steelers safety, Terrell Edmunds, had to say about Brian Flores, the coach.

“He’s a bulldog,” strong safety Terrell Edmunds said. “You can tell by just the way he talks that he has a military mentality and wants everything to be on point and not letting anybody slack off. We need that. We need that in the back end, we need that with the linebackers for the communication.”

Quote via The Athletic

Flores just has a physical presence about him that oozes intensity. It’s in his eyes, I think. You’d probably be safer gazing into the stare of Scott Summers (Cyclops). Flores isn’t afraid of using his intimidating presence to coach up players and bully refs… or opposing players, maybe.

Brian Flores clearly has his players’ backs #Dolphins pic.twitter.com/TJGeef6tKU

— Greg Likens (@GregLikens) December 6, 2020

Flores vs NFL/Dolphins

After being fired by the Dolphins, after three seasons as their head coach, Brian Flores even took on the NFL, filing a lawsuit that claimed he was fired for discriminatory reasons, based on his skin color. That lawsuit is very much active.

Flores has interviewed for multiple head coaching jobs, since he was sent packing by Miami, and he’s yet to get another shot. But that’s clearly his end goal. He was interviewed by the Arizona Cardinals for their vacant head coaching position, eventually turning down a second interview to take the Vikings’ defensive coordinator job.

Flores + O’Connell

Not only will Brian Flores challenge players and opposing offenses in ways Ed Donatell refused to do, but he is sure to bring a much different vibe to the atmosphere Kevin O’Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah have cultivated at TCO Performance Center in Eagan.

Since those two were hired, they’ve preached a sense of togetherness and coddling of players that Mike Zimmer refused to allow. Flores, obviously, falls on the opposite side of that spectrum temperament spectrum.

Vikings lucky to get Brian Flores as DC. Vikings D a disaster last 3 yrs, but can be a SB contender if Flores turns it around. Credit to Kevin O’Connell as a common mistake of young coaches is they’re too insecure to get ex-head coaches w/strong personalities as coordntrs. https://t.co/h9Wfxi6s4U

— ChuckModi (@ChuckModi1) February 7, 2023

O’Connell and Flores have experience together from their days in New England, when KOC was a young quarterback, but that’s no guarantee they’ll make great teammates now. There’s no doubt, however, that the Minnesota Vikings defense will improve under Brian Flores. Mostly because they can’t get much worse than what they were under Donatell.

And like Chuck Modi tweeted above, you have to respect Kevin O’Connell’s willingness to step outside his comfort zone on this hire. Some added intensity and leadership inside this organization could be just what they need to take that next step forward.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan