Matthew Coller: Brian Flores has more buttons to push with Vikings' defense this year

The Vikings' DC detailed some of his new pieces on Tuesday...

Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores at an offseason practice. / Images Courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

EAGAN — The Minnesota Vikings’ defense wasn’t totally overhauled in the offseason. Harrison Smith came back rather than retiring and a number of key players from 2023 returned like Josh Metellus, Harrison Phillips, Cam Bynum, Ivan Pace Jr. and Byron Murphy. But both the starting lineup and depth groups feature a lot of change from last season and now the dust has settled on training camp and preseason, the 2024 group appears to give Flores more options than in his first year as defensive coordinator.

The change from last season that could most impact this year’s unit is in the outside linebacker room. They went from Danielle Hunter, DJ Wonnum, Patrick Jones and briefly Marcus Davenport to adding Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, Dallas Turner and veteran Jihad Ward.

Hunter was clearly one of the best players at his position in the NFL, ranking ninth in total QB pressures in 2023 and fifth in sacks. The rest of the unit left something to be desired with a total of 11.0 sacks combined. Wonnum finished 46th of 59 by PFF and Jones was 59th of 59.

The pass rush now has the ninth and 22nd ranked PFF edge players and the 18th overall pick.

Greenard had 12.5 sacks last season but it’s been the other parts of the former Houston defender’s game that have impressed Flores.

“He has an all-around game, setting the edge in the run game, stunt footwork, he works well with others within the pass-rush games getting in gaps and making plays for other guys,” Flores said. “He has a lot of ideas, there is a lot of football chatter with him, which I like. He’s been a great addition. I’m excited to see what that looks like.”

Van Ginkel had one of the best all-around seasons for an OLB in the NFL last year, picking up 53 pressures on 6.0 sacks and playing 147 snaps in coverage to the tune of a 87.3 PFF grade. Flores used the former Wisconsin linebacker similarly when they were together in Miami with him playing coverage on 168 snaps and rushing the passer 307 times in 2021.

The two of them alone would likely cause more problems for a defense than relying on one player to create the vast majority of pass rush but the additions of Turner and Ward add extra layers to what Flores can do with the OLBs. Turner has put together a strong camp, working often against star left tackle Christian Darrisaw early in the summer when Van Ginkel was ramping up after a foot injury. The returns, Flores said, were what he was hoping for.

“Very athletic. Very smart. Tough. Nothing but positives, quite honestly,” Flores said. “One of the good things for him is that he’s in a room with guys like Greenard, Van Ginkel and he’s like a sponge and he’s good with that group as far as extracting information and finding ways for him to apply things with his skill set.”

How will Flores fit the rookie in the mix with the veterans? That answer is going to have to wait until game day.

“We have a role vision for Dallas…and that changes,” Flores said. “If he has the hot hand then we’ll leave him in. If it’s what we expected then we’ll keep it as we planned it out. We have a role for everybody. Nobody is ready to play 100% of the snaps.”

Ward will have a role of his own — one that is likely quite different from the one he had with the New York Giants last year. He played 661 snaps, started nine games and picked up 5.0 sacks for the G-Men. He’s much more likely to be a part of the third-down rushing scheme and spell the other edge players instead of carrying a heavy workload.

Disruptive,” Flores said of Ward. “He's got versatility – he's played inside, he's played outside, he's played really everywhere on the defensive line… There's a lot to like about him."

The interior has changed too — in some ways expected and some ways not. Adding veteran Jerry Tillery to the mix to give a little more depth and pass rush talent to the unit has looked like a good fit throughout the summer. But it’s hard to say that the Vikings would have expected the backup situation to look the way it does with seventh-round pick Levi Drake Rodriguez, former UFL’er Jalen Redmond and UDFA Taki Tiamaki as the next men up.

“This trio of D-linemen have done a really, really fantastic job of coming in, learning the system…the only way to get experience is to get them out there…like with most young players we try to give them a small package [of plays] and let them build and grow from there,” Flores said. “I’d be comfortable putting any one of those guys in there.”

The young DTs beat out veterans James Lynch, Jonah Williams (practice squad) and 2023 draft pick Jaquelin Roy to make the 53-man roster.

Last year the Vikings played seven different DTs, including Roy and veterans Dean Lowry and Sheldon Day. There is an opportunity for an upgrade this season.

The same goes for the much-maligned cornerback unit. In 2023 Murphy Jr. was flanked by promising CB Mekhi Blackmon, who tore his ACL early in camp, and Akayleb Evans, Andrew Booth Jr. and briefly Joejuan Williams. The unit is much more proven this go ‘round with Stephon Gilmore joining after playing 999 snaps for the Cowboys last season along with well-traveled DBs Shaq Griffin and Fabian Moreau.

“We’re still coming together,” Flores said. “There’s a lot of new faces there. Over the course of training camp with Fabian [Moreau] coming in, [Gilmore] coming in, Shaq [Griffin] coming back so there’s a little bit of putting those pieces together.”

The faces have sample sizes of playing well in the league unlike their predecessors aside from Murphy Jr., except one of them: UDFA Dwight McGlothern, who impressed in preseason in training camp enough to make the final cut.

“Well deserved,” Flores said. “He certainly stepped up and made a lot of plays over the course of training camp. To me it’s a big deal when an undrafted player makes the team, beating the odds.”

McGlothern is likely to play more special teams than cornerback reps this year. Special teams coordinator Matt Daniels called him a “core four” player, meaning a participant in all the phases of ‘teams. Even if he isn’t called upon for Flores’ unit just yet, McGlothern does give the Vikings a touch of youth in a group made mostly of veterans.

The safeties have all been with Flores before — and while he said on Wednesday that he doesn’t like taking Harrison Smith off the field very often, we might see a little more rotation in that area of the field. The safeties are Flores’ ace in the hole. He has players that line up everywhere and cause nightmares for opposing QBs trying to identify whether they might be blitzing or dropping in coverage. Having that part of the roster understand Flores already as many others adapt to a new team works to the DC’s advantage.

“There is a little more familiarity, understanding of how we try to gameplan or our plans of attack, whether it’s in the run game or pass game, third-down, red zone etc., so it’s not all brand new for them,” Flores said.

Will a deeper bunch end up equating to better defensive numbers? It stands to reason that health and schedule will play into their final stats. The defense likely has to be better than it was in 2023 to get the same results. And Flores will have to mix some things up. It seemed that the better QBs were able to solve the all-or-nothing defense often times last year.

With a few more clubs in the bag to use now, Flores could amp up his creativity even more.

“Everybody's got some new wrinkle — everyone's got the new play that they can't wait to run. You know, I got a couple myself,” Flores said.