Analysis: Will the Vikings be able to keep Brian Flores as their defensive coordinator?

On Monday and Tuesday, after the Vikings returned from a weekend off following their fourth straight win, coach Kevin O’Connell and defensive coordinator Brian Flores took turns framing the state of a working relationship whose future will hinge on a negotiation.

Flores’ three-year contract with the Vikings expires after the season, and the possibility of Flores leaving at the end of his contract has been on the Vikings’ radar for nearly a year. A source said this past spring that the defensive coordinator could decide to bet on himself and let his contract expire before signing an extension, taking the chance to truly assess his market after three seasons of strong on-field results in Minnesota.

He’s now just two weeks from being able to do that. Coaches are typically free to talk with other teams 10 days after the end of their current team’s season, which would mean Flores could discuss defensive coordinator jobs with other teams starting Jan. 14.

“I love Minnesota. I love this team. I love working for and with ‘K.O.,’” Flores said Tuesday. “He’s been fantastic to me. I think the Wilfs are some of the best owners in the league. I love these players, the coaches. This place has shown me a lot of love, and I show them right back.

“And so I don’t know how much more there is to it. From a football standpoint, it fits. There’s always a, let’s call it a business part of this. But the football all lines up. We’ll just see where it all goes.”

After three seasons of exemplary on-field results for the Vikings defense, the team and its 44-year-old defensive coordinator have reached a crossroads. Does Flores want to be a head coach again? Do the Vikings want to make a commitment that could put him at or near the top of the NFL’s defensive coordinator pay scale?

On Monday, O’Connell said, “I absolutely want Brian Flores to be the defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings as long as we can have him,” adding his contract discussions with Flores “go back a long ways” and the two have had “very good dialogue” about it recently.

Flores could have signed an extension before this season and still interviewed for head coaching jobs this winter. The fact he didn’t means he’s close to being a free agent in the coordinator market, too.

The Vikings are fifth in the NFL in yards allowed and eighth in takeaways this season, after leading the league in takeaways while finishing fifth in points allowed last year. In terms of expected points allowed per play, the Vikings defense is fifth in the NFL this season, after finishing 17th in 2023 and improving to second in 2024.

And despite the fact they’ve started three quarterbacks who have combined to throw a league-high 21 interceptions, the Vikings are a game away from finishing above .500. On Thursday, Dec. 25, the Vikings’ 3 net passing yards were the fewest by an NFL team in a win since 2006. They forced six turnovers and knocked the Detroit Lions out of the playoff race in what offensive coordinator Wes Phillips called “one of the more inspired defensive performances I’ve ever seen on a football field.”

”[It is] pretty obviously the reason we won that football game, with us not giving them anything cheap [on offense],“ Phillips said. ”But those guys played out of their minds, and it was just great to see late in the season, with not a whole lot on the line, per se. For those guys to come out and play the way they did was just great to see. From a coaching perspective, to ‘Flo’ and those guys, I just tip my hat to what they’ve been able to do with that group.”

His time in Minnesota has been a football renaissance of sorts for Flores after a four-year stretch in which the former New England assistant became Miami’s head coach, lost his job, claimed in a lawsuit that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross had offered him money to lose games on purpose, and sued the NFL alleging racial bias in the league’s head coaching search process. A season with the Pittsburgh Steelers connected him with Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi, introducing Flores to the pressure and coverage scheme that helped him remake the Vikings defense and reignite his career in Minnesota.

He could receive interview requests for head coaching jobs again, a year after he interviewed with the New York Jets, Jacksonville and Buffalo. His innovative approach has inspired copycats around the NFL, and it figures teams will want to learn about what he has done in Minnesota and what he could do in charge of their teams.

Flores’ head coaching candidacy, though, would be about more than his work as a coordinator. He would have to answer questions about how he would work with a quarterback, after Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa’s criticism of his leadership style, and show he’s the proper fit as the face of a franchise, capable of setting a standard across the entire organization.

“There are only 32 of those jobs, and to be talked about is an honor from that standpoint,” Flores said. “If those opportunities present themselves, I’ll talk to my family, talk to my agent, and we’ll kind of move forward from there.”

A defense full of veterans means major offseason decisions, including whether safety Harrison Smith will retire and whether the Vikings will keep high-priced pickups like defensive tackle Javon Hargrave. Flores said assistants like defensive backs coach Daronte Jones and inside linebackers coach Mike Siravo are future coordinators in the NFL. If Flores left, the Vikings would have to decide whether one of those assistants could continue his scheme or whether they would have to remake the defense again.

They have known for months about the looming deadline for a decision on Flores. With that deadline approaching, the Vikings and Flores will see how much they want to substantiate their commitment to one another.