Beating the Drum; Extend this guy!!

Vikings’ Brian Flores says ‘it’s the players, not the plays’

On the NFL: Part of the Vikings’ undefeated start is a defense that ranks second in the league in points given up, and that begins with the autonomy defensive coordinator Brian Flores gives his players.

The more accolades that Brian Flores receives, the more he tries to redirect the credit for what’s become the NFL’s No. 2-ranked scoring defense.

“Look, it’s not my defense,” the Vikings defensive coordinator said when the Vikings were 2-0. “It’s the players’ defense. It’s theirs. I tell them that all the time. They can come to life.”

It was the Tuesday before the Vikings whipped the Texans 34-7 to become one of the NFL’s five remaining undefeated teams. Flores was asked about the high volume of well-coordinated stunts and twists that his linemen and linebackers are executing in two-man tandems to the confounding detriment of opposing blockers.

Instead of taking a bow for himself, Flores explained how “there’s no way I can make those calls” from the sideline without seeing the protection schemes in real time.

“I try to give the players the autonomy and the freedom to make those calls when they happen or else there’s no way … I don’t have a crystal ball,” Flores said. “They have the freedom to check it, to not check it.”

How common is that?

“My experience, where I’ve been, it’s something if you have the right guys who can understand the situations, can understand when, why and how, you should let them do it,” Flores said. “When you don’t, sometimes you don’t and in those situations, you just tell them, ‘We’re just going to run this.’ Otherwise, it can get a little hairy when you don’t have the right guys.”

Flores has the right guys.

Ward is one of Flores’ less-celebrated new hybrid toys this season. He’s listed as a third-string outside linebacker, but he is way, way more than that.

Ward played 37 defensive snaps Sunday. According to Pro Football Focus, he played these positions this many times: left defensive tackle (5), right defensive tackle (3), left end (4), left outside linebacker (4), nose tackle (1), right end (6), right outside linebacker (12) and left inside linebacker (2).

In other words, Ward can do a lot of things.

“Coach Flores actually listens to us as players,” Phillips said. “You don’t get as much of that from other coaches on game day because by then they kind of like their plan. But Flores has trust in us that if we say it’s going to work, he’ll say, ‘Let’s do it.’”

Linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill is another new face this season. This is his sixth NFL team and his second stint under Flores after spending the 2020 season in Miami when Flores was head coach.

“First of all, no, stuff like this doesn’t happen everywhere,” Grugier-Hill said. “I think Flores is the best in the league when it comes to ‘it’s the players, not the plays.’”

Source: Startribune