Kevin O’Connell, Brian Flores grew together during the Vikings’ 14-3 season. The playoffs are the ultimate test of their bond.

Each Thursday night, Vikings players and coaches gather somewhere in the Twin Cities for an event they call “Fellowship Thursdays.” Kevin O’Connell is only an occasional participant in the get-together, and even when he joins, he’s not the master of ceremony.

These nights are defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ show, his chance to let players see the “everyday Flo”: the middle brother from an inseparable Brooklyn family who’s now a suburban dad coaching his kids’ football and basketball teams. They know the “do-what-it takes Flo” too: the pugnacious, undersized linebacker who coached under Bill Belichick and forged one of the NFL’s best defenses out of chaos and competitiveness that first frustrated the Vikings offense in practices before it was unleashed on the league. It’s the persona that most associate with Flores; the Vikings get the chance, particularly on Thursdays, to see more.

“If it was my first week, and ‘Flo’ is talking about, ‘Why aren’t you guys celebrating?’ I’d be like, ‘This is Brian Flores?’” said safety Camryn Bynum, the choreographer of the viral dances Vikings defenders used after many of their league-leading 33 takeaways this year. “But since I’ve known him since [2023], and realized he’s not the military type of coach the picture may paint him to be, I’m not surprised.”

Flores foots the bill for the gatherings of 18-20 players, usually at a local restaurant. Some events — like the suite he booked at the Wild-Oilers game on Dec. 12 or the training camp gathering at his Eden Prairie house, where players met his wife, Jennifer, and played basketball with his kids — draw a bigger crowd. There’s an open invite to all players, coaches and staffers, but defenders comprise the core group. O’Connell, with an expansive job and four kids of his own, said he “took part a few times when I could.” He often gives the group space, mindful of the unique bond that’s formed around the defense with Flores at the center.

“It kind of became part of the DNA of that group, truly being a unit that operates as one within our team,” O’Connell said. “And it’s not always just scheme. It’s how we want to play, and that last element of being totally connected. I’ve seen it come to life in front of 70,000 people.”

It’s a generator for one of the 2024 season’s surprise stories, thanks to a defense that became one of the NFL’s hardest to solve, turned three mid-tier free agents into first-time Pro Bowl selections and emerged as a worthy complement to a star-powered offense. Flores, hired before the 2023 season, formed a kind of dyad with O’Connell through their shared aggressiveness, frank discussions and influence on one another’s coaching style.

Flores, O’Connell said, helped the third-year head coach find an authentic voice, allowing the “firmer parts” of his personality to emerge in front of the team (in contrast to his nice-guy reputation) while observing how Flores relates to players.

“He can be demanding of the guys, but also constantly builds them up,” O’Connell said. “It’s kind of how our whole culture is built. There’s nothing about it that’s soft. There’s nothing about it that’s going to look the other way when things need to be corrected. I know our defense is being coached at a standard I have incredible comfort with.”

O’Connell, Flores said, reminds him of Mike Tomlin, his previous boss in Pittsburgh. O’Connell and Flores have talked about the right ways to demand more of players; Flores still finds himself taken with O’Connell’s ability to follow critique with sunlight.

“His approach, particularly with our guys, is so positive, in a game where not everything’s positive,” Flores said. “There are failures. There’s stress and frustration, and he finds a way to find a light in what could be dark times. Players need that. I think we all need that.”

Vikings linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel remembers Flores being “more by the book” when he played three seasons for him in Miami. He sees a looser coach who preaches about the importance of playing with joy, chuckles about Bynum’s latest celebrations and riffs about the banter between Jonathan Greenard and Blake Cashman.

“I think ‘Flo’ has realized, and I kind of understand, you’ve got to be excited to play this game,” Van Ginkel said. “It’s a lot of hard work; you’re putting in all this sweat and tears, rehabbing from injury. There’s a lot that goes into it. So you’ve got to enjoy it.”

On Thursday, teams seeking a new head coach can begin virtual interviews with Flores, who has received requests from the Jets, Bears and Jaguars, with the Raiders also reportedly interested. He’s almost certain to be asked how he’s changed since his three seasons as head coach in Miami, particularly after Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa called Flores a “horrible person” in a radio interview during training camp. Josh Metellus and Harrison Phillips stood behind Flores while he addressed the comments on Aug. 20; O’Connell called the show of support an “exclamation point” on the relationships he’d watched form between the coach and players.

Flores’ head coach candidacy has “full support” from O’Connell, who said he’s told the defensive coordinator, “I think any team would be really smart to talk with you, because of your experience and the coach you are now.”

Before any of that, they will coach their first playoff game together, trying to extend a partnership both say has made them better.

“It’s great to be in an environment where there’s somebody performing in a high level,” Flores said of O’Connell. “It makes you look inward and say, ‘Hey, I need to work up to that level.’ ”

There’s a “natural competitiveness,” Flores said, in the partnership with O’Connell, whose offense is a test subject for the unorthodox pressures and duplicitous coverages that have riled quarterbacks the past two years.

O’Connell hired Flores to remake Ed Donatell’s placid defense that foundered at the end of a 13-4 season. Flores came from Pittsburgh with a twist on his pressure packages, pairing them with the “hot” zone coverages he’d learned from Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi while the Steelers shared a practice facility with the college team. Kirk Cousins’ frustrations during 2023 training camp practices were an early bellwether the defensive shift might work; O’Connell and Flores both said it took time to settle on rules of engagement for practices.

They installed “dealer’s choice” periods, where Flores or O’Connell can dictate the look they want to practice against while still allowing players to compete on a play. Occasionally, they have to explain to players why they are refraining from calling a certain blitz package or pass protection that might produce a big play for one side of the ball but make the practice snap counterproductive for the other.

“You don’t want to snuff out anyone’s competitiveness,” Flores said. “That’s what makes the people in the building who they are. At the same time, you need to get things done. I can’t blitz on every play and make them get out of runs, or else they can’t work on the run game. So we work well together.”

Some head coaches struggle to calibrate the tension between competition and cooperation with coordinators on the other side of the ball; O’Connell and Flores seem to use each other as a productive foil.

Their early-week meetings about game plans and practice structure spark impromptu consultations about how a certain coverage disguise might affect an offense, or how a screen pass might pair well with another pass concept in the Vikings’ packaged plays. Flores said he has installed multiple defensive schemes from his conversations with O’Connell; the head coach recalled several times he presented the offensive staff with a play he and Flores built after a 30-minute conversation. Other times, he has used Flores’ feedback to alter granular details of a play, like a route that breaks 6 yards downfield instead of 8.

“It‘s not every single day of the game plan. But when it happens, it’s critical,” O’Connell said. “I think that’s a winning edge for our organization to have him and I working together.”

Flores agreed with Van Ginkel’s assessment of how he’s changed, saying, “I’ve probably mellowed out a little bit” since his time in Miami.

“When you’re a first-time head coach, you’re trying to prove a lot to yourself: ‘Can I do this? Am I ready for this? Am I the leader that I think I am?’ ” he said. “I’m in a place now where, yeah, I can do it. I’m very confident that when I walk in a room, my presence can capture an audience. So I think my demeanor and the way I go about it is different.”

Watching O’Connell communicate with young players has taught him some things, too. But nothing taught him more than an interaction he had last basketball season with his 11-year-old son, Miles. Flores reminded him during a game to box out on a rebound; the hurt he saw on his son’s face jarred him.

“I was kind of like, ‘Buddy, you just need to box out; it’s a simple correction,’ ” Flores recalled. “And that turned into, ‘You think I’m not good at anything.’ I was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, that’s not where this is going.’ But in that moment, I was kind of like, ‘Maybe some players feel that when they’re being corrected.’ Now, when I talk to the players, I say something to the effect of, ‘Don’t you think it’s a reasonable expectation to box out, especially since your coach talks about it all the time?’ It just hits a little different.

“You’re not necessarily sure how people interpret your words. So I’m much more conscious of that.”

Flores emerged from the housing projects in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood, where his mother, Maria, “ruled with an iron fist.”

“I guess it was just normal to me. You’d get a 99 on a test, it was, ‘What happened to the other point?’ ” he said. “They’re a little different now. I could never say that; I wouldn’t do it, either. We’ve all got to grow and adjust and be flexible. It’s like people who won’t use a computer, or won’t do a PowerPoint: you’re just behind. And I don’t want to be behind.”

He talks with coaches about the messages that might work with one player or the personal issues that might weigh on another. His default critique now begins with a question, like the one he used with his son, and he said he first assumes that even when players make mistakes, “they wanted to do the right thing.”

Flores has learned when he speaks, people listen. As a result, he said, “I don’t have to be as demonstrative.”

When Tagovailoa’s comments were published, O’Connell said, he could have read into them with concern. Instead, “a pretty good sample size” of observations led him to believe Vikings players supported Flores as strongly as Metellus and Phillips did.

“He cares about us, but he also wants us to do well, and he sees that in us,” Metellus said. “It’s definitely special to have that kind of trust in your coach.”

O’Connell won a Super Bowl ring in 2022 as Sean McVay’s offensive coordinator before taking the Vikings job; Flores’ last championship came in 2019 when he called a Patriots defense that held McVay’s Rams to three points before he took the Dolphins job. They understand the sleepless double shifts required of a coordinator preparing for playoff games and job interviews. Though Flores said the Vikings are his main focus, he’ll take O’Connell up on his offer to be a resource during the hiring cycle.

“I’d be silly not to get his thoughts on an offensive mind he would recommend, so we’ve had some conversations about that,” Flores said. “We’ve also had some conversations about staying put.”

He has cherished the work-life balance (a relative term for an NFL coach) that has returned with being a coordinator, where he can put his three kids to bed or attend their games. “My sons [Miles and Max] are 11 and 10. My daughter [Liliana]’s 7. There’s a little window here,” he said.

The relative calm he enjoys in Minnesota, the relationship he has with O’Connell and the joy he finds coaching a group that studies and celebrates with verve might convince him to stay. If he leaves for another head coaching job, he will do so with O’Connell’s blessing.

O’Connell said he “absolutely” worries about losing Flores, “but it’s a byproduct of success. I’d love to have this current group of coaches together for every day I possibly coach here. But I also know that wouldn’t be fair to them.”

All that will be decided later. Now, O’Connell and Flores have at least one postseason together.

“They’re fire and ice,” Bynum said. “It makes it cool they can complement each other.”

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