The 2024 season for the Minnesota Vikings is going to be a fascinating one.
There are a lot of interesting pieces to look at with the Vikings team. From the quarterback position being in flux with Sam Darnold at the helm to the group of pass catchers having question marks about their availability, it's going to be at the very least a fun ride the next few months.
Brian Flores' defense has loads of potential
Arguably the most interesting thing about the Vikings is how the defense will evolve in Brian Flores' second-year. There were struggles at the end of the season and despite that, the Vikings finished as the 17th-ranked scoring defense.
The 33rd Team's and former Pro Football Focus analyst Sam Monson is really intrigued by what Flores might have cooking for 2024.
"This is one of the most fascinating, like individual units in the NFL, right? You've got Brian Flores' defense, which, a year ago, was making magic happen with smoke and mirrors, and then eventually they reached a point the season where they basically ran out of smoke and mirrors, and teams had figured it out enough so that the lack of talent on this defense was just too much to overcome. And it's like the defense ran out of juice late in the year. And you're right, this off-season has been a lot about let's try and upgrade the talent across the board, and, you know, make sure that we don't have to rely on just smoke and mirrors endlessly. So there's been a lot of turnover and a lot of additions you have, let's call it a swap, from Danelle Hunter to Jonathan Greenard. And you know, they got younger, they got cheaper at that position, but then they did make additions, Andrew Van Ginkel, Dallas Turner, in the first round of the draft, the guy that a lot of people thought was the best defensive player in this draft.
"Then you got Ivan Pace Jr. at linebacker, this fascinating sort of undersized bowling ball, you know, human rocket that they had a year ago. Real surprise package. They add Blake Cashman in the off-season, another unconventional body type, short, stumpy arms, you know, not your traditional linebacker shape, human. They now have a pair of these guys in the middle.
"Their safeties are as good as ever, if not better, because apparently Theo Jackson has been a find for them. So now they've got Josh Metellus, Harrison, Smith, Theo Jackson, Cam Bynum by them like four or five safeties that they want to get on the field, and corner has been a complete plan B already.
"So just a wild degree of turnover, a wild new personnel group that they have in this unit, and the whole thing is still sort of contingent, and hinging on what Brian Flores is able to do in year two, with the scheme having seen the end of year one, start to get worked out a little bit."
That is going to be really interesting to watch what Flores does to modify his defense. His scheme last season was rooted mainly in zero coverage and playing zone behind it. That style was borrowed from the 2021 Pitt Panthers defense from the ACC. Ultimately, the amount of zone, especially Tampa-2 coverage, they played made things easy for offenses to attack.
Now that he has different personnel, will the defense evolve or adapt? With Flores at the helm, it's more likely there is some for of adaptation, likely with more man coverage. It's something that Flores prefers with his defenses and he now has better personnel to run it.
No matter what happens, watching the all-22 of Flores' defense will be peak television.
