After weeks of rumored interest, the Chicago Bears made a move to land Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores as their next head coach.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on January 6 that the Bears requested an interview with Flores, who also received a request for the New York Jets head coach position on “Black Monday.”
The Bears’ request comes after several insiders touted Chicago’s interest in Flores for his transformation of the Vikings defense and his connections to general manager Ryan Poles.
While Flores is among a growing list of a dozen candidates as of Tuesday afternoon, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer said that he expects Chicago to take a “long look” at Flores.
“[Flores is] a Boston College teammate of GM Ryan Poles. He’s in Minnesota, where Kevin Warren worked for a decade and a half — and reviews have come back from the Minnesota Vikings to Warren raving about the job Flores has done,” Breer wrote on January 2. “He’ll have to answer, of course, for what went wrong with Tua Tagovailoa in Miami, given that he’d have a young quarterback to raise in Chicago. But, yes, I’d expect the Bears to take a long look at Flores.”
Inheriting the 28th-ranked scoring defense from the 2022 season, Flores’ defense allowed the fifth-fewest points to close the 2024 season.
Schefter deemed Flores one of three “top HC candidates in the upcoming hiring cycle across league circles.”
Vikings’ Brian Flores Sends NFL a Message on Becoming a Head Coach Again
GettyVikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores celebrates with linebacker Blake Cashman
While Flores has an ongoing lawsuit against the NFL and the Dolphins, alleging Miami bribed him to throw games before he was fired in 2022, Flores admitted that he would like to become a head coach again.
While he has a desire to lead a team in the future, Flores said it would have to be the right opportunity.
“It would have to be the right opportunity, but, yes, I would love to be a head coach again,” Flores said on “The Adam Schefter Podcast” in November, adding that his family loves Minnesota and there might be some “resistance” to make another move.
Despite a dysfunctional 2024 season that included the firings of offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and head coach Matt Eberflus, Chicago has several intriguing defensive pieces for Flores to build around.
However, Chicago’s No. 1 priority should be to develop quarterback Caleb Williams, a task that Flores would have to delegate. There’s a case that the Bears should hire an offensive head coach lead those efforts.
Brian Flores’ Super Bowl Pedigree
GettyBrian Flores won a Super Bowl with the New England Patriots in 2019.
Flores, 43, began his NFL coaching career in the New England Patriots scouting department back in 2004. He climbed Bill Belichick‘s staff over the years, eventually becoming a position coach.
Flores was promoted to play-calling late in the 2018 season as the linebackers coach but reveled in the role that landed him the job in Miami the next year. Flores went toe-for-toe with one of the league’s brightest offensive minds in Sean McVay and held the Los Angeles Rams to a field goal in a 13-3 win in the Super Bowl.
“There’s no other way to say it, but I got out-coached,” McVay said after the Super Bowl, per the Miami Herald.
Flores is behind the Vikings’ defensive overhaul in the offseason, identifying Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, who Flores’ Dolphins drafted in 2019, and Blake Cashman as prized free-agency targets.
Greenard and Van Ginkel earned Pro Bowl honors for the first time in their careers, while Cashman is arguably the heart of the Vikings defense and would have a strong Pro Bowl case had he not missed three games with a turf toe injury.
