Vikings to hire Brian Flores as defensive coordinator

Ladies and gentlemen, we got him. Per Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Minnesota Vikings are hiring Brian Flores to be their new defensive coordinator, filling the vacancy that was created when the team fired Ed Donatell after their elimination from the playoffs.

Flores had been considered a head coaching candidate for the Arizona Cardinals and was most recently a defensive assistant for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He spent three years as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins from 2019 to 2021 and, prior to that, was a longtime assistant with the New England Patriots.

With Flores at the helm, you can bet that the Vikings’ defense is going to be significantly more aggressive than they were this past season. Flores’ defenses have been among the league leaders in blitz percentage at most of the places he’s been, and after what we saw this past season it will be interesting to see how the defense changes heading into 2023. There are likely going to be a lot of new players for Flores to shape and mold into his vision of the Vikings’ defense.

We’ll have more on what this means for the Vikings over the next day or two, but it appears that the search for a defensive coordinator is over for Kevin O’Connell and the Vikings.

Welcome to Minnesota, Coach Flores!