B-Flo's Defense - Personnel, Scheme, and Versatility

The “fill the gaps and go” approach

If contending again in 2023 is Minnesota’s goal, the defense remains much more of a project than the offense. The addition of another receiving threat – either in free agency or the draft – and a few more dice rolls on the interior offensive line could quickly make the offense another top-10 unit.

That’s the good news for the Vikings, who in this scenario won’t have much cap space to work with it. That reality becomes a much harder one to parse through for Flores and the defense – and it’s undoubtedly the more difficult path to believe in.

For Flores’ defense to be successful next season it must remedy the major shortcomings of the 2022 unit without the ability to completely overhaul the personnel. It will require several hits in the bargain bin of free agency and the internal development of both veterans and youngsters. And even with an all-in approach, Minnesota will likely need to say goodbye to at least one expensive defensive veteran. Here’s a conceivable plan the Vikings could pull off.

Who to hold on to?

- Re-sign Cornerbacks Patrick Peterson and Duke Shelley, restructure Harrison Smith

- Restructure Za’Darius Smith, re-sign Danielle Hunter and Dalvin Tomlinson

Who to let go?

- Linebackers Eric Kendricks and Jordan Hicks

Needs in free agency

- A linebacker to pair with Asamoah
Potential option: Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Drue Tranquill

- At least one more cornerback
Potential option: Pittsburgh cornerback Cam Sutton

- Rotational pass rusher

The “take a step back” approach

This is the much less convoluted approach and it takes much less hand-wringing to make the money work.

A lack of adequate drafting and development over the final years of the Mike Zimmer/Rick Spielman tenure and the first year of the new regime has left the defense gasping for youth. This path would hope to remedy that.

If the Vikings do decide to take a step back, hoping to retool like the Eagles did and push forward toward playoff contention two or three years down the line, the defense is easy to tear down and could give themselves some cap flexibility to work with over the next several seasons.

As mentioned, cutting Kendricks and Hicks would create nearly $15 million in cap space. Releasing Za’Darius Smith saves another $12 million. Independent of any other moves on the roster, that brings the team under the salary cap.

It doesn’t mean the Vikings would need to rid themselves of all their veterans. An extension of either Hunter or Tomlinson makes sense, considering their primes could still line up with a later playoff window. The Eagles held on to Brandon Graham from their previous Super Bowl and he proved to be a valuable part of Philadelphia’s defense this season.

Keeping Harrison Smith wouldn’t necessarily align with Minnesota’s next playoff window, however, his contract isn’t easy to move off of either. The new regime seemingly drafted Smith’s replacement in Cine, so that could foreshadow a move, but cutting him would create only $7 million in space and leave a nearly $12 million dead cap hit.

The probable outcome in this retooling path is that one or two of the veterans stay on the team while the rest are released or traded.

The result would be trial by fire for many of the Vikings’ young players that have been stuck behind veterans. Brian Asamoah is a probable starter at linebacker. One of Patrick Jones or D.J. Wonnum could nab a starting defensive line spot. Several young players will likely have major responsibilities in the secondary, whether it’s Dantzler, Booth, Evans or Cine.

In this scenario, the idea of starting rookies is not out of the question either. It’s a different situation but the Chiefs gave five rookie defenders a considerable amount of snaps by the postseason. That’s a dream scenario and one the Vikings shouldn’t bank on, but they may very well put several rookies in a position to either sink or swim.

There’s plenty of time before the draft, but several of the defensive names that have already been consistently mocked to the Vikings include:

Illinois cornerback Devon Witherspoon – the prototypical “island cornerback,” known for his man coverage skills and feisty play. Witherspoon would allow the Vikings to blitz and feel confident with the coverage on the back end.

Penn State cornerback Deonte Banks – another press cornerback that’s physical on the line of scrimmage and at the catch point. He’s got a massive wingspan and locates the ball well in the air.

LSU EDGE BJ Ojulari – quick and bendy pass-rusher that gets to the quarterback frequently. More than 100 pressures and 100 tackles in the last two seasons. Could serve as a rotational rusher at the beginning of his career and evolve into an every-down player.

The defensive reboot could also receive a jolt if Minnesota moves on from Cousins, whether it be this year or next year. That would free up considerable cap space the Vikings could use to lure a star defensive player, not just mid-tier and bargain-bin players.

It appears rather unlikely that happens this offseason, but a year of development for several of the second and third-year players and a promising start for one or two rookies could quickly make this Vikings team just a couple of free agency pieces away from having an average or above average unit.

Wednesday’s introductory press conference with O’Connell and Flores could give the first sense of which path the organization plans to take.

Flores was able to work his way up the ranks of the Patriots’ coaching staff over the next decade, eventually taking over as defensive playcaller during New England’s Super Bowl run in 2018.

After that impressive run, the Miami Dolphins hired Flores as their head coach. He coached a team with a dearth of talent to a 5-11 record before going above .500 in each of the next two seasons. However, he missed out on the playoffs by one game each time. During his time in Miami, Flores was the defensive playcaller, and he ran a defense rooted in Bill Belichick’s scheme. The Dolphins’ defense played very well under Flores, as they went from dead-last in EPA/play on defense in 2019 with a roster torn down to the studs to sixth over 2020 and 2021 combined. DVOA also shows a quality defense, as Miami’s defense ranked 11th and 10th in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Those performances would be a vast improvement from the dismal Vikings’ defense of 2022, which ranked 16th in EPA/play and 27th in DVOA.

From a schematic perspective, the Brian Flores defense is very different from the Vic Fangio style defense the Vikings ran last year. Both the Patriots and Dolphins used heavy doses of man coverage under Flores. Per Sports Info Solutions, the Patriots ran man coverage an astounding 58% of the time in 2018, and the Dolphins were in the top five of the NFL in Man Coverage % in both 2020 and 2021. Blitzing is also a critical part of the defense, as the Dolphins led the league in 2021 with a 38% blitz rate, and were top five in 2020. This signals a vast departure from the Vikings’ 2022 defense, where they ran man coverage just 23% of the time (25th) and blitzed only 22% of the time (19th).

DEFENSE FRONT AND PERSONNEL

To learn Flores’ scheme, one must first learn the personnel and positions on the defense. Flores bases out of a 3-4 front, but also uses sub packages quite often. In 2021, the Dolphins were second in the league, using their base 3-4 personnel 34% of the time, but they were also first in usage of dime (six DBs) personnel, at 31%, per Football Outsiders. They also used nickel (five DBs) at a 33% rate, so their personnel usage was split almost evenly between the three groupings.

- BASE 3-4 FRONT
- 4-3 UNDER FRONT
- SUB FRONT

(at the link ^)

HOW DOES THE VIKINGS’ PERSONNEL FIT FLORES’ SCHEME?

One of Flores’ better traits is his ability to adapt his scheme to the personnel he has. In the first picture above, he has two very different edge rusher bodies (Lawson has about 30 lbs. on Van Ginkel), and he knows how to use them to their strengths. He would ask Van Ginkel to take on more aggressive coverage concepts than he would Lawson. Per PFF, Van Ginkel played 71 snaps in coverage in 2020, while Lawson played just 17. In 2021, he drafted an edge rusher in Jaelen Phillips, who has very similar dimensions and athleticism to Danielle Hunter, in the first round, and had a specific role for him that was unique from Van Ginkel and Lawson’s. Flores has also worked with players like Trey Flowers in the past, a big-bodied, heavy handed edge rusher who often reduced down inside. Za’Darius Smith could be very useful in that role.

On the interior of the defensive line, the Vikings have the run stuffing interior players that Flores likes to have. Even with Dalvin Tomlinson set to be a free agent, Harrison Phillips and Khyiris Tonga should fit well in this scheme. What the team is lacking is a pass rushing threat from the interior. Jonathan Bullard (also an FA, but likely significantly less expensive than Tomlinson) and James Lynch have the body type, and played admirably last year, but lack the pass rushing juice that a player like Ogbah provides. Za’Darius may be able to help with that issue, but I’d expect another addition at this role.

At the linebacker position, the Vikings don’t have many players that fit previous Flores archetypes. Patriots great Dont’a Hightower was a unique player in this era of football at 6’5″, 260 lbs. Flores was unable to replicate him on the Dolphins, so he used a run thumper in Elandon Roberts in tandem with a better coverage player in Jerome Baker. This combination could work well if the Vikings use Brian Asamoah, who is a terrific downhill athlete and Eric Kendricks, a great coverage player, in tandem, but Asamoah’s talent seems wasted in that role.

Flores also typically employs undersized edge rusher/linebacker hybrids, like Van Ginkel and Van Noy mentioned above. The Vikings do not have a player with this physical profile, so it will be interesting to see if they bring one in. Notably, the Dolphins did move on from Van Noy prior to the 2021 season, and Van Ginkel was their only major piece remaining that met that archetype.

In the secondary, Flores also has experience working with diverse body types, as he coached Eric Rowe, a hybrid S/CB. In New England, he featured Devin McCourty, one of the best deep safeties of the generation, and Patrick Chung, who was used as a man coverage TE eraser. In 2021, he drafted Jevon Holland, a versatile safety who he played both in the box and deep, sometimes asking him to drop to a deep zone all the way from the line of scrimmage, which his athleticism enabled him to do.

This sounds like a great role for Lewis Cine. Flores should also help Harrison Smith thrive, as he will be willing to use him where he does best: in the box and as a blitz threat. Flores had Holland blitz 65 times in 2021, while Donatell’s scheme ask Smith to blitz a paltry 14 times, a far cry from 43 pass rush snaps in 2021 under former HC Mike Zimmer. The Flores defense asks cornerbacks to primarily be man-coverage players. The Vikings currently only have three CBs from last year on the roster for 2023: Andrew Booth Jr., Akayleb Evans, and Cameron Dantzler. I believe both Booth and Evans have the traits to be man coverage corners, but more additions will be necessary to complete the group.

In the next installment of this series, we will discuss his pass-rush schemes and run fits along the defensive front.