Brian Flores' scouting background shows again in Isaiah Rodgers signing
The DC has a lot more hits than misses over the last two years when building the Vikings defense
By Matthew Coller
EAGAN — On November 27, 2023, I ran a piece about Brian Flores’ roots in New England shaping his success in Minnesota.
For that article, I talked with former Patriots executive Scott Pioli, who told me about hiring Flores as a scout back in the early 2000s and how Flores grinded his way up the ladder in the New England front office because of his attention to detail. Pioli noted that Flores’ personal philosophy to look for players’ strengths rather than focus on their weaknesses matched up with The Patriot Way of thinking about scouting.
“B-Flo has learned since the beginning to identify what people do well and accentuate the positives and limit the limitations,” Pioli said. “B-Flo knew that he had limitations [as a player] but he was able to play because he was able to accentuate his positives — he gets it.”
Three weeks into his third season as defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, Flores’ unit leads the NFL in Expected Points Added on defense and Flores has examples all over the field of Flores’ scouting skill.
The most recent glaring of those examples is cornerback Isaiah Rodgers. This offseason, Flores was insistent that the Vikings sign Rodgers as a starting outside cornerback despite the fact the 27-year old had been a role player with Indy and Philadelphia in the past. His career high in snaps was 525 and he played 329 regular season plays for the Eagles last year.
The bet on Rodgers paid off massively when he picked off a pass for a touchdown, returned a fumble for a touchdown and forced another fumble against Cincinnati last Sunday.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell said following the game that when Flores has a certain “tone in his voice” about some players, it’s time to work with the front office to acquire that player.
“I can remember vividly the conversation with Brian Flores about [Rodgers] and the vision for the player, the vision pairing him with Murph [Byron Murphy Jr.], and what we thought that could be like,” O’Connell said. “I think it’s a matter of Flo’s impact and his ability to have vision for players like we’ve seen here with two free agencies now, where there’s been an immediate impact on our team from some of these guys that show up and end up being great Minnesota Vikings for us.”
In Rodgers, the Vikings’ DC saw a playmaker. He loved the fact that he had been one of the better kick returners in the NFL, a function of his ridiculous speed.
“He’s skilled, he’s fast, he’s got quickness,” Flores said. “He’s got football acumen. The one thing that I really loved about him was the ball skills. He’s got returnability. He’s a high-level returner, so if he can catch it in defense, maybe he can go do something with it. Now, I didn’t think it was going to be [a two-touchdown game].”
Flores’ talent for seeing something in players without needed a huge sample size of performance are everywhere in the 2025 lineup. When Flores arrived, Josh Metellus was a special teamer. Ivan Pace Jr. and Jalen Redmond were undrafted. Levi Drake Rodriguez was a seventh-rounder. Last year he was heavily involved in acquiring Andrew Van Ginkel because the veteran outside linebacker had played for him in Miami. AVG had the best year of his career in 2024. Flores was convinced by his neighbor, a former Gopher staffer, to check out linebacker Blake Cashman. He had his best career seasons too.
Flores background in scouting has clearly played into his skill for helping identify the right players for his system, but Flores’ passion for player evaluation also drives his success in landing key defenders. When he looks in the mirror, he still sees a scout.
“I’m a personnel scout and quite honestly… that’s really my my comfort zone in a lot of ways, I feel like I’m better at that than coaching, honestly,” Flores said. “I’m very confident in the evaluation process and I have a process that I’ve gone through really my entire career. And I love that time of year, having a vision for the next season, the types of guys we’re looking for based on what we have, what we want to do a year from now.”
O’Connell called it “critical” for coaches to have the ability to evaluate players because they have to be able to factor their skill set and how that player is going to fit in within the context of the entire defense. If you can’t do that, you waste assets.
“When you’re trying work with personnel and how you’re trying to build the roster, you’re trying to thread a needle,” O’Connell said. “If you’re going to identify a player… in the free agency process, how are you acquiring that player? How does it affect comp picks, all those things? You better feel really strongly about the vision and the role for the player. That’s where Flo has been phenomenal.”
Of course, Flores is basically rigging the deck when it comes to his hit percentage. If he uses the players to their greatest strengths, they have a lot better chance of succeeding. Over the last two years since he began molding the defense in his vision, he has been able to carve out roles for players and make the puzzle pieces fit.
“It’s not just kind of talent, it’s who are the communicators and how does this player fit with Murph and Metellus and Harry?” Flores said. “I think you put all those things together and try to have a vision for a group and how does the guy fit? That’s a big part of the scouting process.”
Players have taken notice that their DC seems to always have the right plan for them.
“What certain guys are asked to do assignment wise, he tends to get us in roles that we all excel at,” safety Harrison Smith said of Flores. “It’s a lot harder to do than to say.”
With uncertainty on the offensive side of the ball, the Vikings will need more unproven defensive players to step up. Second-year outside linebacker Dallas Turner is emerging in a much bigger role than last year. Recent mid-round picks like Jay Ward and Ty Ingram-Dawkins have carved out spots in the rotation. The team traded away Mekhi Blackmon in favor of Jeff Okudah and the depth is filled with UDFA guys like Gabe Murphy, Bo Richter, Chaz Chambliss and Dwight McGlothern who may be called upon at some point.
No scout has ever batted 1.000 but Flores’ hit rate has allowed the Vikings to build a defense that is as good as any in the NFL.
Everyone in the NFL knew about Rogers speed. What other factor did Flores know that made it a great fit? I'm impressed with Rogers overall performance so far this season and I can't wait to see more.