Brian Flores just took a job with the Minnesota Vikings as their defensive coordinator, but here’s why Pittsburgh Steelers fans don’t need to worry.
Monitoring the status of Brian Flores has been a rollercoaster ride early this week. After it looked like things were quiet on his front and that he might be returning for another season with the Pittsburgh Steelers as their senior defensive assistant, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported that Flores was going to land a second interview with the Arizona Cardinals for their vacant head coaching position.
Just one day later, however, Rapoport confirmed that the Minnesota Vikings were hiring Flores as their new defensive coordinator. Now the former Steelers assistant coach will look to improve a Vikings defense that ranked 30th in the NFL in points allowed per game (25.4) and 31st in yards surrendered per contest (391.1), per ESPN stats.
The recent departure of Flores has many Steelers fans upset. Some believed that the young defensive mind could have had a career in Pittsburgh while others lobbied for him to replace Teryl Austin as defensive coordinator. However, nobody should be sweating over his departure from the team.
Brian Flores was never the answer for the Steelers
Rational fans knew that Flores’ time in the Steel City was going to be very short-lived. As a former head coach who still has a bright coaching career ahead of him, he wasn’t about to stick around the facility as an assistant defensive coach.
While some were hopeful that the team would promote him to defensive coordinator, there wasn’t a good enough reason to get rid of Austin. But that’s not the only reason why fans shouldn’t fret over Flores’ departure from the team.
Flores was very up and down for the Miami Dolphins. In his first season as head coach in 2019, his defense ranked 32nd in points allowed per game (30.9) and he finished with a record of 5-11. The following year was much better, as Flores led his team to the 4th-best defense and a 10-6 record, but came back down to earth in 2021 with the 15th-ranked defense. I certainly do not feel that Flores’ firing from Miami was justified, but his defense wasn’t very consistent from year to year.
The biggest reason why Flores wouldn’t have worked out in Pittsburgh, however, was due to his scheme. Flores runs an extremely blitz-heavy defensive scheme that requires outstanding cornerbacks. Without them, this defense can look really bad. This is why it took a talented CB group that included massive contract players like Xavien Howard and Byron Jones to pull this off.
Obviously, the Steelers have not valued the cornerback position highly in the past, and in order for Flores’ defense to work in Pittsburgh, they would have to make massive roster changes and substantial investments in the CB position. Outside of Cameron Sutton (who is an unrestricted free agent), the Steelers don’t have a cornerback on their roster who could have helped pull off Flores’ defense.
We wish Brian Flores the best of luck in his coaching career, and I’m sure he will get another shot at becoming a head coach in this league. However, fans don’t need to worry about his departure from the Steelers. It was never going to work out in Pittsburgh.