Brian Flores Might Leave the Vikings
He didn’t get any love during last year’s head coaching carousel, but that appears likely to change next month when coaching movement heats up.
Brian Flores Might Leave the Vikings
That’s Brian Flores, the Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator and architect of this year’s Top 3 purple defense.
Flores landed on a shortlist this week of new skippers for the Vikings’ rival, the Chicago Bears.
Bears podcaster and author Dan McNeil tweeted Monday, one day after the Bears’ record fell to a lousy 4-8 mark: “Sources confirm these FOUR coaches are on the Bears’ list for HC: Ben Johnson, Brian Flores, Joe Brady, Mike Vrabel. They may want to talk to more candidates, but they’re targeting these four. More as soon as I get it.”
Chicago recently fired previous head coach Matt Eberflus after a few years of futility and a ginormous, nationally viewed clock management blunder on Thanksgiving day. The Bears got a jump on the head coaching search, so lists, as McNeil mentioned, are fair play.
Incidentally, Flores would make all the sense in the world as the Bears skipper. He has a “Bears attitude” — tough as nails and fearless. Chicago also has a defensive backbone — it’s the franchise’s foundation, so to speak — and it wouldn’t be strange for that organization to roll with back-to-back defensively-minded coaches.
On the other hand, Flores might have two items working against him. Foremost, controversy arose a few months ago when Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa got in front of a microphone and trashed Flores. The two worked together in Miami for two seasons.
Tagovailoa ignited the beef on a radio show in August. “To put it in simplest terms, if you woke up every morning and I told you you suck at what you did, that you don’t belong doing what you do, that you shouldn’t be here, that this guy should be here, that you haven’t earned this right, and then you have somebody else come in and tell you, ‘Dude, you are the best fit for this,'” Tagovailoa told The Dan Le Batard Show, implicating Flores as the culprit. “How would it make you feel listening to one or the other, you see what I’m saying?”
He didn’t stop there.
“Then you hear it, no matter what it is, the good or the bad, you hear it more and more, you start to believe that. I don’t care who you are. You could be the president of the United States, you have a terrible person telling you things that you don’t want to hear or probably shouldn’t be hearing, you’re going to start believing that about yourself,” Tagovailoa continued his sharp critique of Flores.
“And so that’s what sort of ended up happening. It was, it’s basically been what two years of training that out of not just me but a couple of guys as well that have been here my rookie year all the way until now.”
Chicago’s brass may not want a head coach with a history of quarterback turmoil to mentor rookie Caleb Williams.
What’s more — if Chicago doesn’t care about the Tagovailoa dustup — the Bears could hire a skipper like the aforementioned Ben Johnson, the Detroit Lions offensive coordinator — to ensure Williams’ development. Flores is a defensive personality through and through, and he’d have to hire a knock-it-out-of-the-park offensive coordinator to assist Williams.
The Vikings’ defense, led by Flores, ranks third leaguewide per EPA/Play through 14 weeks.
If the Bears don’t hire Flores, other teams like the Cincinnati Bengals or Cleveland Browns could check some boxes if those clubs make changes at head coach.
Not long ago, Flores expressed an explicit desire to return as a head coach somewhere in the league. In short, he wants to be a head coach again. It just has to be the “right opportunity,” Flores told ESPN’s Adam Schefter last month.
In fact, Flores told Schefter he would love to head coach again. “Now, I may get some resistance from my kids, who are having a great time here in Minnesota. They’re having a fantastic time here just with school, and basketball, and football, and friendships and things like that. I think I’d get a little resistance, but for me personally, it’s something that I’d love to do again. With that said, Minnesota has been a great spot for me. My family, we’re really enjoying it,” Flores said in November.
Flores will turn 44 in February.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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