Another Team Enters the Mix for Brian Flores
The Minnesota Vikings’ defense has barnstormed the league in the last month or so, and Brian Flores‘ head coaching profile has heated up accordingly. In fact, the buzz is so loud heading into Week 18 that one theory suggests Flores could head down to Dallas to become the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator.
The Dallas chatter may be only chatter, but it’s loud enough to matter, and another suitor means Minnesota’s Flores question can’t be postponed.
The idea doesn’t make much sense, but it’s out there nevertheless.
Dallas Buzz Adds Real Heat to the Flores Watch
Flores to Dallas is apparently a thing, per one website.
Mike Florio Floats Cowboys as Flores Destination
Flores to Dallas didn’t exist until this week, when NBC Sports‘ Mike Florio popularized the idea.
He wrote, “While the Vikings attempt to extend the expiring contract of defensive coordinator Brian Flores, it won’t matter if another team wants to hire him to be a head coach. It will matter if another team is thinking about hiring him as its next defensive coordinator. There could be more than one. But one such team that is lurking is the Cowboys.”
“Dallas seems to be destined to fire defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, after a disastrous reunion year. (Never mind the fact that owner/G.M. Jerry Jones traded the defense’s best player 10 days before Week 1.) And the increasing chatter in league circles is that the Cowboys will be firmly in play for Flores.”
Just because Florio ran with it doesn’t make it true. But it’s now out there in the digital stratosphere.
Why Would Flores Move Laterally?
The strange part? It just doesn’t make sense for Flores to leave the Vikings for the same job in Dallas. As in — why would he do it? Because Dallas is “America’s Team,” does it stand on a larger stage than Minnesota? That just doesn’t feel like something that motivates Flores.
Florio added, “Flores could be the winner, either way. If Jones decides to give true credence to his periodic claim about the size of the check he’d write to win a Super Bowl, he’ll put real cash on the table. Which could spark a bidding war for Flores, between Dallas, Minnesota, and whoever else may decide to try to hire him.”
“The other factor in all of this is whether the Vikings truly want Flores back, or whether they want to create the impression that they tried to keep him. As we learned when canvassing high-level personnel with multiple teams about Flores’s head-coaching prospects in the coming hiring cycle, his Belichickian style hasn’t always meshed with Minnesota nice.”
If Flores has multiple defensive coordinator jobs to choose from, it might boil down to whether the Vikings are willing to match another team’s offer. All signs point to the team’s owners, the Wilfs, doing that. Why wouldn’t they for an habitual Top 8 defense? Flores has cooked in Minnesota, despite general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah drafting just one impactful defender since 2022: Dallas Turner.
Deserving a Head Coach Chance
The Vikings’ decision to let Flores coach through the season without an extension only makes sense through one lens: Flores still wants the big chair somewhere else.
His Miami tenure ended messily after 2021, followed by a contentious interview cycle with the New York Giants and Denver Broncos in 2022 — circumstances that ultimately led to his ongoing lawsuit against the NFL. That history hasn’t fully pushed him out of the head-coaching market. But he has not earned a head coaching gig since.
Flores felt momentum last winter. Quiet interest surfaced during the annual carousel, enough to suggest league doors hadn’t closed. If anything, they cracked back open. Another cycle brings another opportunity, and this one arrives with Flores carrying fresh credibility from what he’s built in Minnesota.
Absent that ambition, the Vikings’ approach is puzzling. Teams don’t typically let elite coordinators drift without clarity, especially ones who’ve stabilized an entire unit and elevated the organization’s credibility. An extension could have happened at any point over the past year. Nothing happened.
The Other Places?
Let’s pretend that Flores doesn’t re-up with the Vikings and doesn’t sign with Jerry Jones in Dallas.
His options might look like this next week when Black Monday shows multiple coaches the exit sign:
- Arizona Cardinals
- Cincinnati Bengals
- Cleveland Browns
- Las Vegas Raiders
- New York Giants
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Tennessee Titans
Keep an eye on the Bengals if Zac Taylor is fired. Bengals assistant general manager Trey Brown came up with Flores in the same system out in New England about 15 years ago.
It’s also worth noting that Josina Anderson pushed back on Florio’s Cowboys-Flores theory, tweeting Sunday, “Again, Brian Flores is not just going to take a defense coordinator title with any other team. Count on that.”
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