Brian Flores Is Eyeing 1 Specific Coaching Job
It was the year 2022; the Miami Dolphins fired their head coach after three seasons with the franchise. Brian Flores took over the organization ahead of the 2019 season with one of the worst rosters the league had ever seen and still won five games. In the next two years, he finished with nine wins each, resulting in Miami’s first consecutive winning seasons in roughly two decades.
Brian Flores Is Eyeing 1 Specific Coaching Job
Exactly three years later, Flores might have a chance to secure one of the coveted 32 head coaching positions once again.
On Sunday and Monday, numerous NFL teams parted ways with their head coaches. A few positions had already opened during the season. The Chicago Bears and the New York Jets have requested interviews with Minnesota’s defensive coordinator. Those cannot take place until after the wild card round, according to NFL rules.
But he’s looking at a third spot. The HC position with his former team, the New England Patriots, has opened, too. New England fired Bill Belichick’s hand-picked successor, Jerod Mayo, after only one season in charge.
On Tuesday, Flores addressed the media, as he always does. Kevin Seifert, ESPN, posted from the presser:
“Brian Flores is gracefully taking a lot of questions about his head coach prospects. He said he will take every interview that is requested. Asked if he is interested in the Patriots job, he said: ‘I would say yes.’ But he added ‘it’s not up to me’ if they want to talk.”
Flores was employed by the Patriots for the majority of his NFL coaching career, starting in 2008 as a special teams assistant. His last year with the club was in 2018, when he was the linebackers coach. The Dolphins subsequently hired him. After his dismissal, he spent one year as a senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach with the Steelers. And then the Vikings called.
The defensive mastermind took over a horrendous defense in 2023 and has transformed the group into an elite unit within two seasons. In the 2024 season, the Vikes rank second in EPA/play and fifth in points allowed.
Seifert added, “Brian Flores also made clear he is ‘locked in’ on preparing for the wild-card game vs. Rams. Per NFL rules, he can’t interview until late next week. He also said: ‘It would have to be the right decision for me to leave.'”
It makes sense for Flores to wait for the right situation because the second chance might be his last. Setting foot into an unstable organization (for the second time) doesn’t provide the desired job security.
In November, Flores was asked whether he still has the intention to return to the top 32 jobs in the business: “Now, I may get some resistance from my kids, who are having a great time here in Minnesota. They’re having a fantastic time here just with school, and basketball, and football, and friendships and things like that. I think I’d get a little resistance, but for me personally, it’s something that I’d love to do again. With that said, Minnesota has been a great spot for me. My family, we’re really enjoying it,” the coach said a few months ago.
A problem for Flores could be his ongoing discrimination lawsuit and the accusations of his former quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa. The two clearly didn’t get along, and building a relationship with the quarterback is important for a head coach, as Flores can see first-hand while working with Kevin O’Connell in the Twin Cities.
The good news is that coaches, just like anyone else, can learn from mistakes.
Flores will turn 44 in February, and a new job could be his birthday present. The Vikings would surely like for him to stay for another year, but Flores seems to be intrigued by the Patriots gig as well as all the others. Besides the playoff run, this might be the most significant development for the Minnesota Vikings in the next few weeks.
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Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and prefers Classic rock over other genres. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt