The Minnesota Vikings are arguably the best-coached team in the NFL and would probably like to bring the band back together next season, but that could prove a tall order.
Dan Graziano of ESPN predicted on Tuesday, January 14, that the Chicago Bears will hire Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores as the next leader of the locker room, despite a couple of potentially good reasons to look elsewhere for their next head coach.
“The Bears’ list of candidates is massive, and Flores still hasn’t been allowed to interview with Chicago because Minnesota made the playoffs,” Graziano wrote. “But this is the name that comes up the most when I ask people around the NFL to make a prediction. Flores led the No. 5 scoring defense (19.5 points allowed per game), and the Vikings finished tied for fourth in sacks with 49.”
Brian Flores May Not Be Able to Break Into NFL Head Coaching Ranks Again, Not Perfect Fit With Bears
GettyDefensive coordinator Brian Flores of the Minnesota Vikings.
Flores makes sense as a head coach in the NFL, having held the job before. He spent three years leading the Miami Dolphins from 2019-21, earning winning records in both of his final two seasons.
The bigger issues facing Flores and getting another head coaching job are two-fold. First, in a more general sense, Flores remains involved in a class action lawsuit against the league and multiple individual teams stemming from his dismissal in Miami. Those legal proceedings will complicate his candidacy anywhere until the courts resolve them.
Secondly, Flores had some very public issues with Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Before the season, Tagovailoa made multiple damning statements about Flores’ personality and his abilities to coach offense effectively, which raise natural questions about his fit with rookie Caleb Williams in Chicago.
“There are hurdles for Flores — who appears to be a strong candidate for the [New York] Jets job, as well — to clear before any team can hire him. That’s especially true in Chicago,” Graziano wrote. “But by all accounts, it sounds like Flores has made a very different impression on people in Minnesota than he did in Miami.”
Vikings’ Defense Could Look Very Different Next Season Based on Player, Coach Turnover
GettyCornerback Byron Murphy Jr. of the Minnesota Vikings.
What direction the Vikings’ defense might travel if Flores takes off for a head coaching job, either in Chicago or elsewhere, is a question of extreme significance for a team that has salary cap space but also a roster potentially in major flux over the next couple of months.
Six of the team’s top seven defensive backs could depart in free agency, including Minnesota’s top three cornerbacks. The Vikings’ secondary struggled in some metrics based on the complex system Flores implemented that included heavy blitz packages and exotic coverage schemes behind them.
Thus, not only does the team need talent in the secondary to shoulder the extra burden placed upon the unit under Flores, experience is also key. That could change, obviously, if Flores leaves and the system changes under a new defensive coordinator.
The problems facing Minnesota’s defense will shift in multiple ways based on Flores’ future and how much turnover there is in the secondary via free agency. That said, it would probably be an ideal situation for the Vikings if Flores is not a perfect fit in Chicago — or anywhere else — this offseason and simply returns to Minnesota for his third year as DC.
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