Did Brian Flores choose to become the new Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator instead of the new Arizona Cardinals head coach because of Kyler Murray?
On Monday, the Minnesota Vikings announced the hiring of Brian Flores as the team’s new defensive coordinator. Flores, who spent the 2022 season on the Pittsburgh Steelers coaching staff, was actually a finalist for the current Arizona Cardinals head coaching vacancy, and instead of possibly getting the opportunity to work with Kyler Murray, he chose to join the Vikings.
Why exactly did Flores end up picking Minnesota over Arizona? Most would view the chance to be a head coach in the NFL as an opportunity that no one should ever turn down, but the Vikings’ new defensive coordinator clearly felt differently about the opening with the Cardinals.
Did Brian Flores choose the Minnesota Vikings over the Arizona Cardinals because of Kyler Murray?
Murray‘s tenure in Arizona hasn’t exactly been full of rainbows and unicorns. He’s helped the Cardinals achieve a good amount of success during his time with the franchise, but he’s also been a target for plenty of criticism for his on and off-the-field behavior that some might describe as immature.
Arizona just signed Murray to a massive contract extension last year worth $230.5 million, so he’s going to be a part of the team’s immediate future no matter what.
During his time as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, Flores reportedly struggled to build a productive relationship with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Whether that was more the coach’s fault or Tagovailoa’s is something we’ll probably never truly find out.
But did knowing that he would be forced to work with another young signal-caller like Murray decrease Flores’ interest in becoming the next head coach of the Cardinals?
If it did, Minnesota should be very thankful. Now the Vikings get a guy in Flores who helped transform the Dolphins’ defense from the 32nd-best unit in the NFL in terms of points allowed in 2019 to the sixth-best unit in the league in 2020.
Can he do the same for Minnesota in 2023? At this point, anything better than the disaster that was the Vikings’ defense in 2022 will be welcomed.