Questions Answered: Biggest Difference with Flores, Cameron Sutton, 2023 Need
Dustin Baker
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The following questions are about current Minnesota Vikings topics, answered by PurplePTSD. Today is the February 7th edition, addressed in a from-the-hip fashion. If you have questions, please email them to [email protected].
Also, please note: These are opinion-based responses. Some answers will be incorrect from time to time. But we’ll try to keep that to a minimum.
Questions Answered: Biggest Difference with Flores, Cameron Sutton, 2023 Need
Q: What will be the Vikings biggest difference in 2023 on defense with Brian Flores in charge?
A: Aggression.
Ed Donatell preferred shell coverage and flexing just enough on defense to get by. Flores doesn’t and won’t do that. The Vikings are switching from a conservative defensive approach to a risk-taking, blitz-happy enterprise. Flores will have oodles of different pass-rushing types in Danielle Hunter, Za’Darius Smith, Brian Asamoah, Harrison Smith, etc., at his disposal.
Flores will go for broke on defense. Donatell didn’t really do that.
Q: Do you think the Vikings now make a run at Steelers free-agent CB Cameron Sutton?
A: Yes, it’s a more likely possibility now with Flores in the saddle than two days ago.
Sutton will turn 28 this month and fired up an impressive 72.2 Pro Football Focus grade in 2022. Flores was coworkers with Sutton as a linebackers coach in Pittsburgh.
The Vikings will be in the market for a CB1, whether from the NFL Draft or free agency, and Sutton should cost about eight or nine million dollars annually. General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah should be able to afford that.
Sutton to Minnesota makes sense, indeed.
Q: What is the Vikings top-top need heading into this 2023 offseason?
A: Speak of the devil from the last question — cornerback.
The team has Cameron Dantzler, Andrew Booth, and Akayleb Evans under contract. Patrick Peterson and Duke Shelley are free agents. Flores’ defense will need at least one guaranteed-to-be-good corner.
Expect the Vikings to prioritize cornerback, and it might even be the aforementioned Sutton.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.