Winning five games in a row to finish the 2025 season above .500 was a quintessential Minnesota Vikings thing. Losing out would have been best in terms of earning the best possible first-round pick in April, but even losing more of those final five than they won would have sufficed on that front.
Going 9-8 was no thanks to an offense that was mostly not functional all season. Brian Flores' defense was top-10 in points allowed and top-five in total yards allowed, along with being the second-best pass defense in the league.
After some questions about whether he would be returning for the 2026 season or not, Flores is indeed back to run the Vikings' defense for at least one more year. If his unit is successful again next season, and there's no reason to think it won't be, he will get head coaching interviews again, and maybe he'll finally get his second chance to run an entire team.
In the meantime, Flores will have influence over who comes and goes to fill out his defense. And if someone who was an excellent fit with Minnesota last season finds greener pastures in free agency, they will need to be replaced.
Minnesota Vikings matched with free agent Brian Flores might end up coveting
As ESPN's Matt Bowen recently found potential team fits for the outlet's top-50 2026 free agents, he matched linebacker Nakobe Dean with the Vikings.
"The Vikings have cap issues heading into free agency, but I really like the fit for Dean in coordinator Brian Flores' defense.
Dean, who had four sacks with the Eagles in 2025, is the league's best blitzing linebacker, and he would join a system that led the NFL in blitz rate at 46.8%."
As Bowen noted, Minnesota led the league in blitz rate last season--as they have in all three of Flores' seasons as defensive coordinator.
Having off-the-ball linebackers who are effective blitzers is an essential piece of that equation, and Dean has had seven sacks with 26 quarterback pressures over the last two seasons. He also has 183 tackles and 16 tackles for loss over that span.
Dean has missed at least seven games in two of the last three seasons, so durability is a concern. But that concern may also depress what kind of offers he gets in free agency, despite a pretty robust projected market value/contract, and put him in range of what the Vikings can comfortably afford.
Whatever Minnesota's salary cap constraints are, Flores has been given significant say in the resources that are poured into his side of the ball. So if there's a need to be filled and he wants Dean, the Georgia product might be wearing Purple come mid-March.