While the Minnesota Vikings have been experiencing some major struggles on the offensive side of the ball this season, Brian Flores has the team's defense playing at a high level once again in 2025.
In Flores' third year as the Vikings' defensive coordinator, the team ranks seventh in the NFL in points allowed per opposing offensive drive, 10th in yards allowed per pass attempt, 12th in rushing yards allowed per carry, and second in pressure rate per opposing dropback.
Unfortunately, Minnesota's future with Flores is currently unknown since his contract with the team is set to expire after the 2025 season.
During an episode of the "Access Vikings" podcast on Friday, the Minnesota Star Tribune's Ben Goessling shed some light on what might lie ahead for the Vikings defensive coordinator.
"My sense has been that he's going to play this out, or at least going to look around and say, 'Is there a head coaching job? Is there a coordinator job that [I] would prefer?'
He likes his job here a lot, but the best time to negotiate [a contract], to extract leverage from your situation, is when you are open to other suitors.
If you are trying to get yourself in a better financial situation, the best time to do that is when there's the possibility you could leave. It creates enough leverage for you to come back and say, 'Hey, I'd like a bump here.'
So I think all of that, seeing if he wants to be a head coach again, seeing where his career may go, [he does] have the opportunity to explore that. And the sense I've had this year is that he has planned to do that.”
Minnesota Vikings should pay whatever Brian Flores wants
No one should be surprised, but it sounds like Flores will likely interview for multiple head coach openings around the NFL in the upcoming offseason, just as he has during the last few years.
Even if he doesn't end up being selected by a team to be their new head coach, a return to Minnesota isn't an automatic guarantee.
The Vikings will certainly have an edge over some potential suitors since the defense is already constructed to Flores's liking. But what if a team that's closer to contending for a championship than Minnesota comes along and offers him to run their defense next season?
Would he be willing to turn that down? Or would he want to attempt to win a Super Bowl ring for the first time since he was part of the New England Patriots' coaching staff in 2018?
Luckily, there is no salary cap when it comes to what NFL teams are allowed to pay their coaches. So, with this in mind, an easy way for the Vikings to convince Flores to return in 2026 would be to make him the highest-paid defensive coordinator in the league.
He's definitely worth the money, and for a Minnesota team that is going to have plenty of questions to solve on the offensive side of the ball in the upcoming offseason, keeping Flores around will prevent one less headache from being created.