The Vikings are hiring Steelers senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach Brian Flores as their next defensive coordinator, according to a Monday report from ESPN's Adam Schefter.
Flores will replace former defensive coordinator Ed Donatell, whom Minnesota fired after one season. The Vikings finished the 2022 season 31st in total defense, their worst rank in that category since a 31st-place finish in 2013.
Despite a distinguished NFL resume that includes four Super Bowl rings, Flores has never held a defensive coordinator job at any level. After spending three years coaching the Patriots‘ linebackers from 2016 to ’18, Flores was hired as the Dolphins’ head coach.
Flores went 24–25 with Miami before being fired, after which he brought a landmark hiring discrimination lawsuit against the NFL, the Giants, Broncos and Dolphins and 29 “John Doe” teams. The fallout from the lawsuit eventually expanded into a tanking investigation of Miami, which resulted in the Dolphins losing two draft picks in 2023 and ’24.
A year after Flores filed the lawsuit, he was reported as one of the finalists for the Cardinals‘ head coaching job, which remains vacant.
