Over the past few years, a few NFL teams have continued to get in their own way.
The Tennessee Titans have been anything but a stable organization, the Giants have floundered through poor coaching choices, the Jets are always rebuilding and the Raiders are just a mess.
But there is a coach who could help teams like the ones listed above, and his name is Brian Flores.
Flores was part of a winning culture with the Patriots before being hired as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins in 2019, a team in regress in three seasons under Adam Gase.
After finishing 5-11 in his first season in South Beach, Flores cleaned house and turned things around for the franchise, going 10-6 and 9-8 in his next two seasons before surprisingly being fired despite leading the team to its first back-to-back winning seasons since Dave Wannstedt (2002, 2003).
So despite two years of success and having a sinking ship righted, the Dolphins decided to go with Mike McDaniel who, while getting off to a good start in his first two seasons (with Flores’ team), has watched his team post two consecutive losing seasons (2024 and 2025) and seen the firing of GM Chris Grier.
After his released, Flores interviewed for a few of the nine highly-sought after NFL coaching jobs (the tenth was Tampa Bay but Bruce Arians handpicked Todd Bowles as his successor), but nothing came to fruition.
That’s when he took a stand and sued the league, the Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins and NY Giants for racial discrimination in their hiring process.
He knew it would cost him, but he was fearlessly committed in his stance against a biased system.
That year, Mike Tomlin brought him to Pittsburgh where he helped defensive coordinator Teryl Austin forge the Steelers into a formidable defense. Then it was off to Minnesota, where he’s been the Vikings defensive coordinator for the past three seasons.
Now that the 2025 NFL regular season has been completed, a few teams will be looking for a coach and we say call Flores.
The Vikings current DC has been in negotiations with the team on a new contract, which expires this month. And while head coach Kevin O’Connell wants him back, Flores is deserving of another head coaching opportunity.
“I imagine he’s going to be a pretty popular guy there [the head coaching search process] as well- and rightly so, he’s earned everything. [But] that doesn’t take away from the route we want to go to make sure he’s our defense coordinator for the foreseeable future,” said O’Connell.
While it’s great knowing that the head coach wants him back, there is no denying that a second chance at an NFL head coaching job is a goal for Flores.
He was shut out in 2022 and 2023, which was predictable due to his still pending racial discrimination lawsuit.
But if teams are serious about change, strong leadership and proven results, they need to fly Flores in starting this week.
