The start of the offseason for the Minnesota Vikings was always going to be a tough one with the impending doom of potentially losing defensive coordinator Brian Flores out there.
Flores' contract is up with the Vikings in January, which leaves him free to explore options to be a head coach or defensive coordinator elsewhere in the league. He is already going to interview with the Baltimore Ravens for their vacant head coach job, but it could get worse soon enough.
NFL insider Tom Pelissero recently appeared on Minnesota's KFXN-FM, where he discussed the Flores situation and what would happen with it. With the top of a contract extension with the Vikings, Pelissero said that it is “not on the front burner” for Flores.
“He’s focused on what potential head coaching opportunities could be out there. Once you get past that, let’s see exactly how those other dominoes may fall.”
Waiting period with Brian Flores is only going to get worse for the Minnesota Vikings
It's very early in the process, and it appears our teams are waiting to get their head coaches and general managers in place before looking at the defensive coordinator, but if Flores survives the wave of head coach hires, everyone will be calling once his contract is officially up.
Despite a lackluster offense during the 2025 season, the Vikings had one of the NFL's best defenses, ranking third in total defense, allowing 282.6 yards per game. They were also second in pass defense (158.5 yards per game) and seventh in points allowed per game with 19.6.
Minnesota knows it can't afford to lose Flores, but it has to wait and see how the head coach search goes. Once that's done, if he doesn't get hired, the Vikings can be aggressive in going after him and will most likely be in a bidding war.
The one team to watch out for that will go after Flores is the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas has already interviewed Vikings defensive backs coach Daronte Jones, so the Cowboys see the value in the Minnesota coaching staff.
This would be a nightmare for the Vikings, as they know they cannot save everyone and would lose either Jones or Flores. The next few weeks are not going to be smooth for the Vikings, as they have to expect anything to happen at this point.