6 most noteworthy Minnesota Vikings moments from 2023

Noteworthy Vikings Moment No. 3

Minnesota hires Brian Flores to be their new defensive coordinator

When it came to defense, the Vikings were one of the worst teams in the NFL during the 2022 season. Minnesota's massive struggles on defense in 2022 ultimately resulted in the team moving on from Ed Donatell as their defensive coordinator after just one year.

During their search for a new defensive coordinator, the Vikings met with multiple candidates, but in the end, they decided to give the job to former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores.

Despite being a coach in the NFL since 2008, Flores had never had the official title of defensive coordinator until Minnesota gave it to him in 2023.

After just a few weeks of offseason workouts, Vikings players and coaches realized the team's defensive scheme was going to be extremely different under Flores, but in a good way.

Coming off of a 2022 season where it looked like Minnesota was playing prevent defense every week, the team was now going to get to utilize a hyper-aggressive scheme that is really unlike anything currently in the NFL.

It took a few weeks for the Vikings' players to fully adjust to Flores' system once the regular season began. But by the middle of Minnesota's schedule, the team's defense was wreaking havoc and causing the heads of opposing quarterbacks to spin on a weekly basis.

Barring an extreme decline, the Vikings are likely going to finish the 2023 season with a defense that ranks among the 10 or 15 best units in the NFL, and after Minnesota's defense ended the 2022 campaign ranked at the bottom of the league, they've made a tremendous improvement during Flores' first year with the team.

The Vikings would definitely like their current defensive coordinator to stick around for at least one more season, but his success could actually prevent that from happening, as he's expected to have plenty of head coaching interest from around the NFL in 2024.