The final seconds ticked off the game clock and the Vikings celebrated an improbable 2-0 start on the field at U.S. Bank Stadium. This time they had earned a 23-17 win over the San Francisco 49ers, proving without a doubt that that the 28-6 win over the New York Giants wasn’t a fluke.
As players dapped up and swapped jerseys before heading their separate ways, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy navigated the chaos before bumping into Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores. They shook hands and Purdy delivered a message to Flores, saying, “Your scheme is crazy.”
If it looked like he was seeing ghosts for prolonged stretches against the Vikings, Purdy’s comments to Flores postgame more or less provided confirmation. The different looks the Vikings presented on defense throughout the game made life miserable for him.
“The disguises and stuff can be tough,” Purdy said. “They just did a good job.”
The defensive dominance the Vikings have displayed during their 2-0 start is the personification of 1) the vision Flores put in place as soon as he arrived in Minnesota, and 2) the influence he has on roster construction as a whole.
His fingerprints are all over this Vikings defense.
After taking over an aging group in desperate need of a facelift, Flores entrusted some savvy veterans like ageless safety Harrison Smith to be an extension of him on the field, and the defense slowly started to show improvement.
All the while. Flores operated like a mad scientist on the sidelines for much of last season, experimenting with every part of the defense, fitting different pieces together to figure out what he felt he needed heading into this season.
The blueprint came into focus through various conversations between Flores and head coach Kevin O’Connell. There was also input from assistant head coach Mike Pettine, defensive backs coach Daronte Jones and a handful of others.
“We kind of build out this vision of what we would like our defense to look like,” Flores said. “We bring that vision to the personnel department, and obviously they’ve got a vision of their own, and we kind of collaborate from there.”
The results of that collaboration came in free agency as general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah went on a spending spree intended to help revamp the defense. In the first week alone, the Vikings made a big splash, signing edge rusher Jonathan Greenard, edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel, linebacker Blake Cashman, defensive tackle Jerry Tillery and finally, cornerback Shaq Griffin.
“I knew it was going to be amazing,” Greenard said. “It was an easy decision for me.”
All of those additions have immediately stepped into starting roles for the Vikings, as has future Hall of Fame cornerback Stephon Gilmore, who signed late in the training camp largely because he wanted to play for Flores.
“I know the defense he coaches,” Gilmore said. “I wanted to be a part of that.”
Not that Flores is interested in taking credit for anything that happens on the field. Though his background in scouting has helped curate the specific pieces necessary to be successful, Flores always makes sure to defer credit to his players.
“It’s not my defense,” Flores said. “It’s their defense.”
That said, Flores is the designer of it all, and the genius exists in how the Vikings can so effortlessly create confusion. They can bluff an exotic blitz package at the line of scrimmage, for example, then drop into coverage without missing a beat.
Essentially, Flores can make it look like one thing before the snap, then have it turn into something completely different after the snap. The shapeshifting has been a hallmark of Flores throughout his career, and he has taken it to the next level with Vikings.
“The best part about it is seeing how it stresses out offenses,” Cashman said. “You can see it on their faces. They don’t know who’s coming on a blitz and who’s dropping into coverage. That’s what makes it fun for us.”
It takes a certain type of player to operate in the system, however, and that’s why Flores seems to value versatility above anything else. He loves that he can have safety Josh Metellus line up on the interior of the defensive line, while Van Ginkel drops into coverage and Smith serves as a rover in the middle of the field.
“I think we’re special,” Van Ginkel said. “We’ve got guys all over the place that can make plays. Just across the board we’ve got playmakers and we have depth. The sky is the limit for us.”
It’s a position-less defense in a lot of ways, and it could make the Vikings incredibly difficult to play against on a weekly basis.
“We just have the luxury,” O’Connell said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys that can all play. and I want to credit Flo for how he’s using them.”
As he reflected on what the Vikings have been able to do on defense so far, safety Cam Bynum said an underrated part of the operation is that Flores has targeted selfless players in free agency who don’t care about their individual stats.
“Nobody came in with an ego,” Bynum said. “They came in humble and ready to learn. That made it easy for them to show their talent. Now we’re seeing what it can look like.”
It was a similar sentiment from Metellus. It goes beyond the infusion of talent on defense.
“It’s like they knew exactly what this team was built on and they went and got guys that fit the exact mold,” Metellus said. “They were brothers instantly. The connection is ever growing. I’m excited to see what we can do with this.”
So is Flores.
“To watch it come to life has been pretty cool,” he said. “Now we’ve got to continue to build.”
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