Vikings could end up as big offseason winners in coaching carousel

Although the 2023 NFL regular season wasn't exactly a peaceful one for the Minnesota Vikings, it wasn't necessarily a complete failure. With the right approach in the 2024 offseason, the Vikings can start retooling their squad for the future, though much of their future direction centers on a key mutual decision both the franchise and mercurial signal-caller Kirk Cousins must make together.

In the meantime, young Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah could be ensuring that he doesn't lose an arguably more important part of the organization's future success. So far, it looks like the Vikes will get the outcome they are looking for.

That's because, as Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio relayed, Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores has yet to receive a head coaching interview from any of the many teams who could use him as a clear upgrade to their previous or current coaching situation.

Vikings DC Brian Flores has not been interviewed for HC openings

"Infuriating" and not "baffling" is the more appropriate word to describe Flores' situation, because there's an unspoken thought around the NFL that teams are indeed retaliating against him for suing the league for discrimination. That, of course, would be illegal to do openly, but as Colin Kaepernick and others serve as examples, the NFL isn't beneath this sort of behavior.

For the Vikings organization, keeping Flores is a bittersweet win, because it surely doesn't feel good to be the beneficiary of something that is rotten to the core. Flores is more than qualified to be a head coach in the NFL and is easily one of the best defensive coordinators in the league.

He's already proven both facts during his time in the AFC East, particularly when he coached the Miami Dolphins before suing the league. If anything, the lack of interviews can be seen as further evidence that Flores' original lawsuit against the NFL carried merit.

The Vikings will, on some level, be happy to keep Flores and the continuity of having him as the defensive coordinator. He brings so much to the table as a tactician and is excellent at relating to the players. If the Vikes can load up on young talent for Flores to work with, he could take this defense to even greater heights than Mike Zimmer did a few years ago when Minnesota were on the doorstep of Super Bowls.

It's terrible he is in this situation, but Flores can still show up the entire league by helping build something special in the Twin Cities.