EAGAN, Minn. — The Minnesota Vikings are hiring Brian Flores as their new defensive coordinator, a supply advised ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday, ending a month-long search to exchange the fired Ed Donatell.
Flores spent final season because the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ senior defensive assistant/linebackers after being fired as head coach by the Miami Dolphins following the 2021 season. He’ll take over a protection that completed No. 31 within the NFL in yards allowed and is on the cusp of a major personnel overhaul. He has a years-long relationship with Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell, who was drafted by the New England Patriots as a quarterback in 2008 when Flores was a particular groups assistant there.
After firing Donatell on Jan. 19, the Vikings rapidly interviewed 4 candidates for the job: Ryan Nielsen, Sean Desai, Mike Pettine and Flores. Nielsen took the Atlanta Falcons‘ defensive coordinator job and Desai eliminated his title from candidacy, however sources advised ESPN all alongside that then-Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Ejero Evero was their high candidate.
Ejero and O’Connell spent two years on the Los Angeles Rams‘ teaching workers from 2020-21, and O’Connell hoped to reunite in 2023. However in the future after the Broncos launched Ejero from his contract on Feb. 4, Ejero agreed to phrases with the Carolina Panthers for the same position with out taking an interview with the Vikings.
Sooner or later later, the Vikings moved on to Flores. It was not instantly clear how his arrival would influence the scheme that O’Connell initially employed Donatell to put in. Flores’ protection in Miami was identified for heavy blitzing and man-to-man protection within the secondary, two traits the Vikings largely stayed away from beneath Donatell.
O’Connell stated after he was employed that he needed an strategy modeled after the 3-4 scheme popularized by longtime NFL coach Vic Fangio. Donatell was a longtime member of Fangio’s workers in San Francisco, Chicago and Denver, however his model of the scheme proved to be predictable and sometimes ineffective. It drew nationwide scrutiny as early as Week 2, when ESPN analyst Troy Aikman known as out the comfortable zone protection it used because the Philadelphia Eagles moved the ball up and down the sector in a 24-7 loss.
Donatell made clear that his core philosophy was to depend on his entrance 4 — particularly linebackers Za’Darius Smith and Danielle Hunter — to use sufficient stress to permit the remainder of the protection to sit down again in zone protection. However the Vikings’ four-man rush managed a 23.9% stress price throughout the common season, the ninth-lowest within the league, and their shell zone left far an excessive amount of room for straightforward yards.
After the protection allowed greater than 400 yards for the fifth consecutive recreation final month towards the Detroit Lions, O’Connell directed Donatell publicly and privately to make adjustments. Donatell did make some tweaks to their go rush schemes, personnel utilization and protection sorts, but it surely didn’t result in vital enchancment.
Total, the Vikings have been of their nickel personnel group on 80.4% of snaps, the third-highest price within the NFL, in accordance with NFL Subsequent Gen Stats. They have been in break up safeties on 50.4% of their defensive snaps, the league’s fifth-highest price. They used zone protection at a price of 79.4%, the fourth-highest within the league, they usually blitzed on the NFL’s Twelfth-lowest price (22.1%).