The ball is (sorta) in Brian Flores' court

Kevin O'Connell wants his gifted DC back next year. It's up to him whether he wants to stay unless an owner breaks rank

Photo courtesy Minnesota Vikings

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By Matthew Coller

EAGAN — Before Brian Flores took over the Minnesota Vikings defense, they ranked 30th in points allowed, 31st in yards allowed and gave up 300+ passing yards eight times. Between 2023 and 2025, the Vikings have given up the fifth fewest points in the NFL.

The Vikings under Flores aren’t just good, they are fascinating. He has been at teh forefront of innovation when it comes to post-snap deception and blitzing. The chart below shows that the Vikings have created the most pressures via the blitz in the NFL since 2023 and play the sixth highest percentage of zone defense.

Over the last three years, Flores has built the Vikings defense in his vision. When he took over, he was putting together a unit that had largely been constructed for the previous defensive coordinator. But over the last two years, they have developed players like Josh Metellus and Jalen Redmond, signed Byron Murphy Jr., Andrew Van Ginkel, Jonathan Greenard, Blake Cashman, Javon Hargrave, Jonathan Allen and drafted Dallas Turner and Levi Drake Rodriguez.

Most importantly, he has formed a deep bond with potential future Hall of Famer Harrison Smith, who has mastered Flores’ scheme and gameplans to the point where he can act as a defensive coordinator on the field.

What has it been worth? The statistic Expected Points Added has the Vikings’ defense with the third most total EPA since 2023 with 197.

The Vikings point differential in the last three seasons is +80. You don’t have to be a math major to see that they wouldn’t be a team with 29 wins over the last three years without his coaching. That has especially been obvious this year as the offense ranks 25th in scoring and 32nd in turnovers.

Following next week’s game against the Green Bay Packers, Flores will be a free agent.

It’s not often that a defensive coordinator A) is so blatantly responsible for the turnaround of a defense from bad to elite yet does not get a head coaching job within the first year or two of doing so B) elects not to sign a contract extension.

On Monday, head coach Kevin O’Connell addressed both parts of that equation, saying that he has made it clear to Flores how much he would like him back.

“We have [talked about remaining in Minnesota] and then goes back a long ways before those reports,” O’Connell said. “We’ve had recent dialogue, very, very good dialogue. Flo knows I love him. He was the guy three years ago that I identified to bring in here and the growth and just our relationship and what he’s meant to me personally is so massive.

O’Connell added that he would like Flores “to be the defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings as long as we can have him.”