{"id":679129,"date":"2026-01-15T11:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T11:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/679129\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T11:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T11:52:12","slug":"washington-commanders-brian-flores-leverage-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/679129\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Commanders: Brian Flores’ leverage play"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 15, 2026, 5:15 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

Brian Flores interviewed for the Washington Commanders<\/a>‘ defensive coordinator job, but two radio hosts are not buying it.<\/p>\n

Yes, the Vikings<\/a>‘ defensive coordinator does not have a contract for next season, so yes, he did interview for the Commanders<\/a>‘ job, but Chris Russell and Grant Paulsen seriously doubt he is coming to Washington.<\/p>\n

Russell (The Team 980 host, 1-4 PM) was a guest with “Grant and Danny<\/a>” on 106.7 the Fan in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. Paulsen inquired directly:<\/p>\n

“Why in the heck would Brian Flores take this job as the defensive coordinator? There are ten other openings.”<\/p>\n

“Well, first of all, I don’t think he is going to take it,” responded Russell. “I think he is going to get a head coaching job, and it might very well be in Pittsburgh because he was there just a couple of years ago as an assistant and they know what kind of personality (he is) and it sometimes can be explosive and difficult to deal with. But I was surprised to find out that he was actually here for an interview in Washington today.”<\/p>\n

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News broke Wednesday that the Steelers have an interest in Flores as well. Russell went as far to say, he seriously doesn’t see Flores taking the Commanders DC position.<\/p>\n

“I think this is, ‘Hey, my contract’s up, I need as much leverage as I can. If I create enough leverage, I get the money I want from the Vikings. I get the money I want from the Dallas Cowboys…I am going to try to use every bit of leverage that I can, while obviously hoping I get one of these head coaching jobs, which I (Russell) think ultimately he will get despite all of his various issues.”<\/p>\n

Russell appeared to be alluding to Flores’s time coaching at Miami. There was a report that Flores screamed at QB Tua Tagovailoa. Some anonymously expressed that Flores was abrasive, hard to read, played mind games, and created a toxic culture. His supporters disagree, stating that he is tough, but they say it is a negative characterization to say he is “tough to work with.”<\/p>\n

Culture is very important to Dan Quinn, so no doubt Quinn and Flores discussed some of the reports and what type of culture Quinn is building with the Commanders.<\/p>\n

Flores is one of several names that have spoken<\/a> to the Commanders, or plan to, regarding their defensive coordinator opening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 15, 2026, 5:15 a.m. ET Brian Flores interviewed for the Washington Commanders‘ defensive coordinator job, but two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[95878,427,7,6,95993,95994,95882,96243,95988,95888,95895,95897,95883,96006,95881,855,111,2480],"class_list":{"0":"post-679129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-commanders","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-commanders","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-sstssportsnflcommanders","13":"tag-sstsncommanders","14":"tag-tagamerican-football","15":"tag-tagdan-quinn","16":"tag-tagminnesota-vikings","17":"tag-tagnfl","18":"tag-tagnfl-hub","19":"tag-tagoverall-negative","20":"tag-tagsports-news","21":"tag-tagwashington-commanders","22":"tag-typestory","23":"tag-washington","24":"tag-washington-commanders","25":"tag-washingtoncommanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115898977195850593","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679129","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=679129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}