Vikings coach Kevin O\u2019Connell spoke at length at his end-of-season press conference Wednesday about wanting to support Brian Flores as Minnesota\u2019s defensive coordinator pursues head coaching vacancies.<\/p>\n
Flores has interviewed for Baltimore\u2019s top job, and could very well be a legitimate candidate for Steelers\u2019 position after Mike Tomlin on Tuesday walked away from Pittsburgh, where Flores served as the linebackers coach before coming to Minnesota.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited for him,\u201d O\u2019Connell said. \u201cI think it\u2019s important that he totally commits to going through this process, especially the head coaching process, and put his best foot forward, which I know he will. He\u2019s been through it before. I\u2019m not surprised people are wanting to talk to him about that role.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how every professional sports organization speaks of its assistants with the potential to climb the coaching ladder. But what about Flores\u2019 other opportunities \u2014 the seemingly lateral ones that exist?<\/p>\n
He\u2019s a free agent this offseason, available to land with another team not just as a head coach but also a defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a rarity in the NFL. Generally, if one of your coordinators is doing a good job, that person is inked to an extension before this point is ever reached. There\u2019s nothing about a coordinator contract with the Vikings that would keep Flores from pursuing head coaching opportunities.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell insinuated Minnesota has tried to get a deal done with Flores prior to this point, to no avail. He doesn\u2019t take that any type of way, noting his relationship with his defensive coordinator is \u201csuper strong\u201d \u2014 O\u2019Connell said the two talk \u201calmost every day\u201d \u2014 and that, based on their conversations, he has \u201ca lot of confidence we\u2019re going to be able to get something done with him as our defensive coordinator.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell noted players like to reach free agency to learn their markets. Perhaps Flores wanted the same in this situation. What better negotiating tactic when hashing out a new deal with Minnesota than to field several lucrative offers for the same position with other teams?<\/p>\n
Maybe that\u2019s all this is. But, professionally, it could also make sense for Flores to seek employment elsewhere.<\/p>\n
If he doesn\u2019t land a head coaching gig in this cycle, he\u2019ll be able to gauge what the true interest was from teams to acquire his services via the quantity and quality of head coaching interviews. If he was truly on the precipice of landing one of those 32 lucrative jobs, maybe maintaining his status quo makes sense for another season.<\/p>\n
But if Flores isn\u2019t pursued to the degree you\u2019d think one of the game\u2019s elite defensive minds should be, he may have to think differently.<\/p>\n
He is at a disadvantage because of his ongoing litigation against the NFL. There probably are owners who are hesitant \u2014 right or wrong \u2014 to hire him to lead their organizations because of how the entire situation in Miami \u2014 his prior head coaching job \u2014 played out.<\/p>\n
Flores may have to establish himself as the clear-cut, undeniably best candidate in a cycle in order to secure a job. Is the path to doing so by staying in Minnesota, where the notoriety isn\u2019t exactly oozing and future success isn\u2019t guaranteed thanks to the Vikings murky quarterback situation?<\/p>\n
Nothing is a given in this league, especially for coordinators, who are the often the easiest scape goats. As an offensive coordinator, Kliff Kingsbury guided an explosive Commanders\u2019 offense to the NFC title game a year ago. Now, he\u2019s out of a job.<\/p>\n
Flores was brilliant this season, but the shine on his achievements was somewhat muted by the team\u2019s flubs.<\/p>\n
But if he went somewhere else \u2014 say, Washington or Dallas \u2014 and turned around a second defense in a short window, perhaps leading to championship-level team success thanks to the cemented quarterback play on the other side of the ball, that would be impossible for any organization to ignore.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell vowed the Vikings are being \u201caggressive\u201d in their pursuit of retaining the defensive coordinator who reimagined Minnesota\u2019s defense in a three-year window. He lauded the relationship he and Flores have established.<\/p>\n
That all needs to not only be true, but carry as much water in the mind of Flores as it does with O\u2019Connell. Because the decision facing the veteran coach isn\u2019t clear cut.<\/p>\n
The path from where Flores is now professionally to where he wants to be in the near future may not require one direct flight via Minnesota.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vikings coach Kevin O\u2019Connell spoke at length at his end-of-season press conference Wednesday about wanting to support Brian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2073],"tags":[6696,7,233,259,2529,6,9,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-675131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-brian-flores","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-vikings","12":"tag-minnesotavikings","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115890326417919876","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}