CATEGORY STAT RANK
Points per game 17.8 5th
Yards per play 4.8 5th
Success rate 60% 3rd
EPA............42.8 3rd
Efficiency 71.2 2nd
EAGAN, Minn. -- Brian Flores joined the Minnesota Vikings as their defensive coordinator, he said at the time, because of the opportunity he saw for his own personal and professional growth. Only now are we finding out what he meant.
In his first season with the Vikings, Flores has achieved a rare feat: concocting a new NFL scheme with almost no one noticing. Flores revealed in a recent ESPN interview that he incorporated a version of the defense popularized at the college level by Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi, one that combines a six-man front with versions of zone coverage behind it.
NFL teams historically use man coverage behind loaded fronts, and no one ESPN reached out to could remember a defense that consistently did otherwise. The Vikings have capitalized on those unconventional foundations, added some of Flores' exotic blitz theories and built one of the league's most effective groups. Since the start of Week 4, when some rough early-season moments required significant fine-tuning, Flores' defense has ranked as a top 5 defense, coinciding with the team winning six of their last nine games.
You're programmed to think that there's these buckets of defenses," safety Harrison Smith said. "Everybody has their own styles, but it's like you're only allowed to do certain things with 11 guys, and [Flores' scheme] kind of breaks that in some senses. The rules of the game are just ingrained in you, even though they're not rules. It's just what we've all been brainwashed into thinking over the years. It turns out you can do more, and that's been really fun to see."
The scheme has fooled offenses, sometimes to comic levels. During a game last month in Atlanta, Vikings safety Josh Metellus heard a Falcons coach yelling at him. Over and over, the coach told Metellus he had decoded the Vikings' scheme and knew what was coming.
"He was completely wrong every time he said it," Metellus said. "Nobody understands what we're doing."
Defensive pass game coordinator/defensive backs coach Daronte Jones, meanwhile, has suppressed smiles during pregame warmups when approached by opposing coaches. Several of them, Jones said, have offered sympathy for the amount of man coverage the Vikings had seemingly asked their defensive backs to play.
And the truth," Jones said, "is that we're really not. Flo's mind just works differently."
The Vikings lead the NFL in frequency of zone coverage (69%), according to ESPN Stats & Information. They have also used their six-man front in ways rarely seen at the NFL level. Flores' defense has the league's highest rates -- by a wide margin -- in two philosophical opposites: blitzes and three-man rushes. They have more than twice as many six-man rushes as the next-most aggressive team, largely because Metellus and Smith have rushed the passer more than six times the NFL average for defensive backs, and they have utilized personnel groupings that complicate the blocking schemes of offenses and reduce the "menu" of plays or formations they can use.
This novel approach required a leap of faith from coach Kevin O'Connell, whose otherwise successful 2022 debut with the Vikings was tarnished by a passive defensive approach that former coordinator Ed Donatell refused to adjust. Flores hadn't yet decided on the specifics of his scheme when O'Connell hired him Feb. 6, but the two agreed they wanted an exceptionally aggressive style.
"I would have had more hesitation if it wasn't Flo and his staff," O'Connell said, "and knowing the type of dialogue, not only with his staff but him and I, would have to get through a lot of layers of ultimately what our defense would be. What I wanted to do is make sure I communicated to him: 'I have confidence in you, I've got belief in you, and these players will as well.'"
Sitting in the Vikings' practice facility on a fall afternoon, Flores waved off grand pronouncements about this season, in the way gourmet chefs might claim a new dish is just something they threw together. While the specifics of his approach have changed from earlier stops in his career, the tenets have not.
"It's always: What do we think is going to create some angst for the offense and will force some communication by them?" he said. "They're trying to get 11 guys to communicate. It only takes one [mistake] to cut somebody [on defense] loose. We just try to create as much of that as possible."
IN FIVE PREVIOUS seasons as a defensive playcaller -- two as a top assistant with the New England Patriots and three as the Miami Dolphins' head coach --Flores built a track record. His defenses ranked in the top 10 in NFL blitz rate over that period, behind which he predominantly used man coverage schemes.
His thoughts began to shift, however, during the year he spent with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2022 as their senior defensive assistant/linebackers coach. The Steelers share a practice facility with the University of Pittsburgh, and Flores said he frequently visited with Pitt assistant coach Tiquan Underwood. The pair watched film together, and Flores said he "kind of got enamored" with a portion of Narduzzi's defense that had been in use since Narduzzi took over as the defensive coordinator at Miami (Ohio) in 2003.
It began as a way to stop the run with six-man run pressures, and then to overwhelm quarterbacks if they threw against it. The front turns into a blitz in those situations, with coverages -- known as "three under, two deep" or "two under, three deep" -- that college quarterbacks couldn't often beat. In an interview with ESPN, Narduzzi called it a "changeup" that "has been kind of our equalizer" over the years.
"If you're looking at it on paper," Narduzzi said, "you're saying it's unsound. But if you play it the right way, and understand the why and what we're trying to do, you understand why we use it."
It was so unusual, Narduzzi said, that some college coaches have barred their defensive coaches from using it. When he worked as a linebackers coach at Northern Illinois, then-coach Joe Novak "wouldn't let me do it," Narduzzi said. Later, Georgia coach Kirby Smart told Narduzzi that Alabama coach Nick Saban turned away the ideas when Smart had been the Crimson Tide's defensive coordinator.
But when Flores began discussing the concepts with his Vikings staff, he had an ally in Jones, the passing game coordinator who had sampled it when he was LSU's defensive coordinator in 2021.
"It looks like the secondary is just by themselves," Jones said. "There's no post safety. There's no Cover-2. It's looks like it's just one-on-one everywhere. But it's not. It's an illusion."
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The 2022 viking defense ranked- depending on metric- anywhere from 29th-32nd. Mostly, its the same players... And now, depending on metric it's playing as a top 5 defense.
Has a co-ordinator ever won "COY"?
Without loking, I assume no.
Imo- Brian Flores is the nfl coach of the year through 12 weeks. He wont get any votes for the award. But dam! Next year expect the copy cat league to dissect what Flores has schemed up & more than 1 team will implement something similar.
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