Steelers news: Brian Flores hired as Vikings DC, ESPN mock draft, and more

Brian Flores is headed to the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh reloads in a recent two-round mock draft. Here’s the latest Steelers news.

In an effort to get one last fill of football in before the Super Bowl, many fans tuned into the 2023 Pro Bowl Games over the weekend. The NFL attempted to spice things up with some creative ideas, but this event was still met with some scrutiny as some events (like the best catch competition and the lightning round) were hard to watch.

As the weekend was nearing its end, it was looking like Brian Flores stood a good chance of sticking with the Steelers for another season. However, his stay in Pittsburgh will prove to be very short-lived. Here’s the latest Steelers news.

Steelers news

On February 6th, it looked like Brian Flores was getting set to enter a second round of interviews with the Arizona Cardinals for a shot at becoming their next head coach. However, Ian Rapoport confirmed yesterday evening that the Minnesota Vikings are set to hire Flores as their new defensive coordinator.

Flores has been a hot name around the NFL hiring circle since the 2022 season ended, and we knew it was only a matter of time before he got a promotion with a new team. Flores will be tasked with improving Minnesota’s defense. If all goes well, he could be in line for a head coaching job as early as 2024. The Steelers are losing their senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach after just one season in Pittsburgh.

More Steelers news

In other Steelers news, Matt Miller of ESPN recently released his updated 2023 two-round mock draft. The NFL Draft expert had Pittsburgh going with standout Oregon CB Christian Gonzalez with the 17th overall pick. He followed up this selection by doubling down on the offensive line with both of their second-round picks — grabbing Minnesota C John Michael Schmitz and Oklahoma OT Anton Harrison.

While the Steelers could very well target these positions early in the 2023 NFL Draft, these players have not been commonly mocked to Pittsburgh so far this offseason. It’s worth noting that Gonzalez and Harrison come from schools outside of the Steelers typical scouting region, but that doesn’t mean they won’t target these players — especially considering there are new general managers at the helm.

NFL news

Since his retirement announcement, Tom Brady has been a popular topic in NFL circles. Brady will be moving on to a broadcasting career after signing a massive 10-year, $375 million deal with Fox last year. However, the New York Post recently confirmed that Brady will not be calling games for Fox in 2023. Instead, he will wait to enter the booth at the start of the 2024 season. Many fans are interested to see what the most prestigious NFL player of all time will offer behind the microphone.