Minnesota Vikings hire in-demand Brian Flores as defensive coordinator after he interviewed for Cardinals head coaching job… as he continues his resurgence following lawsuit against NFL for racial discrimination
The Minnesota Vikings are planning to hire Brian Flores as defensive coordinator after a month-long search to replace former coordinator Ed Donatell according to ESPN.
Flores spent last season as the Pittsburgh Steelers linebackers coach/senior defensive assistant.
He is set to take over a defense that finished 31st in the NFL in yards allowed and is likely to undergo significant personal changes throughout the offseason.
Before spending a year with the Steelers, Flores spent several years as the head coach for the Miami Dolphins where he was known for running a blitz-heavy scheme that implored large amounts of man coverage in the secondary.
That would be essentially a full 360 from the scheme that the Vikings were using under Donatell, who preferred to use only his front four to rush the passer while dropping the rest of his defense back in zone coverage.
Former Steelers senior defensive assistant and LB coach Brian Flores was named Vikings DC
Before spending a year on the Steelers staff he spent three seasons as Miami’s head coach
During his time as head coach of the Dolphins, Flores had a record of 24-25 saw him improve from 5-11 in his first year to 10-6 in his second and 9-8 in his third.
After he was fired by Miami despite the back-to-back winning seasons he was seen as a candidate who was one of the favorites to quickly land a head coaching job with another team until he filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL and the Dolphins, Denver Broncos and New York Giants alleging racial discrimination. The case is still tied up in the court system.
Among Flores’ claims were allegations that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him $100,000 per loss to help the team’s tanking process in 2019 and allegations that the Broncos and New York Giants brought him in for ‘sham’ interviews simply to satisfy the Rooney Rule.
Before being announced as the coordinator for the Vikings Flores was among the finalists for the Arizona Cardinals head coaching job with Bengals’ defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo and Giants’ offensive coordinator Mike Kafka.
Anarumo and Kafka were both said to be among the finalists for the Cardinals job with Flores
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