Brian Flores as DC Has a Covert Reunion Angle, Too
Dustin Baker
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The Minnesota Vikings ended the Ed Donatell era after one season on January 19th and scoured the country for the next defensive coordinator.
After 18 days, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell landed on Brian Flores for the gig, the former Miami Dolphins head coach (2019-2021) and 2022 Pittsburgh Steelers linebackers coach.
Brian Flores as DC Has a Covert Reunion Angle, Too
Instantly, beyond the shadow of a doubt, Flores brings aggression, blitz-happiness, meanness, and attitude to a Vikings defense that wrapped its purple arms around a “bend, don’t break” mentality in 2022. Bend but don’t break is fundamentally dead in favor of a wheeling-and-dealing style of defense that will hope to harass opposing quarterbacks.
Adding Flores also provides a covert reunion of two Vikings leaders, Flores and O’Connell. Back in 2008, the New England Patriots hired Flores to its official coaching staff after four years of work as a scout. And during that same 2008 NFL Draft — boom — New England drafted a young quarterback from San Diego State University named Kevin O’Connell.
That’s right. The two started their journey on the same team. Flores remained in New England for a total of 11 seasons on the Patriots coaching staff, while O’Connell skedaddled in 2009 for excursions with the Detroit Lions and New York Jets. But the two assuredly crossed paths, with Flores as a special teams assistant and O’Connell as a QB3.
Now, Flores and O’Connell will combine forces about 1,400 northwesterly of Foxborough, Massachusetts, hoping to prevent a 2023 regression. The Vikings unexpectedly finished 13-4 in 2022, a marvellous opening salvo to O’Connell’s head coaching career. Minnesota curiously showcased an upside-down -3 point differential during O’Connell’s maiden voyage, but the franchise won the NFC North for the first time in five years nonetheless.
And one emphatic way to prevent a regression from 13-4 is repairing a flimsy defense. O’Connell’s men won those 13 games despite producing one of the league’s worst defenses, ranking third-to-last via points allowed and second-to-last in yards allowed. Looking back at statistics, it seems utterly stunning that the Vikings won so many games with a defense that allowed Mac Jones, Mike White, Jared Goff, and others to resemble Joe Montana in multiple games.
O’Connell can’t reasonably be called a Bill Belichick disciple — he only played in New England for one year — but Flores certainly can. And the 2023 Vikings can definitively stand to inject some Belichickian tendencies into the defensive gameplan.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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