In a mock draft based on her analytics model, NFL Network’s Cynthia Frelund sends the Vikings an edge rusher
With mock draft season in full effect, some mock drafts will be more unorthodox than others, whether through methodology or the picks themselves. The NFL Network’s Cynthia Frelund chose to use a more analytics-based approach and decide what picks would be best for success in the upcoming season.
Turner’s burst ranks among the top 20 percent of edge prospects in my 10-season sample. He doesn’t lose speed/velocity when traveling in a non-straight line, which means his pressures cause disruption more frequently (he posted 10 sacks last season, up from four as a sophomore). I’m pretty sure defensive coordinator Brian Flores would give GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah a hand-written thank-you note if Turner ends up the choice here.
At 6’4″, 252 pounds, Turner has the perfect size for the edge rusher position. Add in his explosion and ability to string pass-rush moves together, and the Vikings should have a day-one contributor in Turner.
The Minnesota Vikings get some much-needed secondary help in latest mock draft. Is it the right choice?
As the off-season approaches, the amount of mock drafts that fans can consume will rise exponentially. With the Super Bowl coming up and the NFL combine just around the corner, Pro Football Network’s Lorenzo Reyna dropped his pre-Super Bowl mock draft.
The Vikings may become torn between Terrion Arnold or Cooper DeJean at No. 11.
PFN NFL Insider Adam Caplan recently spoke with a “high-level scouting source” who told him DeJean is a top-five talent. DeJean is a fleet-footed option as a gap closer with his speed and click-and-close ability. He’s also shown a knack for being a processor in knowing when to jump on routes and adjust his hip direction.
DeJean may be one of the best athletes in this upcoming draft, but there are some concerns about his ability in straight-man coverage.
Luckily for DeJean, the unorthodox approach for defensive coordinator Brian Flores won’t leave him on traditional islands too often where he could be in a possibly treacherous situation. Add to that his versatility to play both inside and outside, and the Vikings have a day-one contributor in the secondary.
A look at the 5 most pressing priorities for the Minnesota Vikings heading into this upcoming off-season
The Minnesota Vikings have the biggest off-season of the Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell era approaching them heading into the 2024 season.
2022 was an overperformance of epic proportions as they pulled off 13 wins in O’Connell’s debut season, pulling off some of the best 4th quarter performances we will ever see. 2023 may have a significant asterisk on it based on the way that Kirk Cousins was playing in the games before his season came to a screeching end with his torn Achilles.
As Minnesota heads into 2024, there are far more questions than answers. What does year two of a Brian Flores defense look like? How can you maximize this roster while continuing to build toward the future? Who is playing quarterback?
Like the competitive rebuild mantra, we look to balance finding the answer to some of these questions with outlining the biggest priorities for the 2024 off-season.
Judd Zulgad writes about Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ success and lack of head coach interviews.
Brian Flores orchestrated such an impressive turnaround by the Minnesota Vikings’ defense this season that many assumed he would be one-and-done as the team’s coordinator. Flores’ name was bandied about by various media outlets as a potential head coaching candidate and, at the very least, the thought was he would get an interview or two.
But nearly a month after the Vikings’ season ended, and with six of the eight head coaching openings in the NFL filled, Flores’ success in making a woeful defense respectable appears to have had little impact on the league’s owners and top executives.
The Vikings were not believed to even had a request from a team to interview Flores. The Seattle Seahawks and Washington Commanders have yet to make hires, but Flores isn’t in the mix for either of those jobs.
It would be one thing if several of the teams looking for coaches, a list that also included the Panthers, Raiders, Chargers, Falcons, Titans and Patriots, had all gone with offensive guys, but that wasn’t the case. The Raiders took the interim tag off former linebackers coach Antonio Pierce, the Falcons hired Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris and the Patriots promoted inside linebackers coach Jerod Mayo in what turned out to be a previously agreed upon succession plan.
So why was Flores’ success ignored?
It doesn’t take much to connect the dots on this one. First, Flores is still involved in a legal battle with the NFL that dates to February 2022, when he sued the league and a few teams, stating the NFL was “rife with racism,” particularly when it comes to the hiring and promotion of Black coaches. In July, Judge Valerie Caproni ruled in Manhattan federal court that she wouldn’t change her decisions to allow Flores to put the NFL and the Broncos, Giants and Texans on trial over claims that he and other Black coaches face discrimination. Caproni had ruled last March that Flores would have to pursue his claims against the Miami Dolphins through arbitration.
Flores had been coach of the Dolphins for three years, going 24-25, before being fired after the 2021 season.
It’s not shocking that Flores suing the league would make it very difficult for him to get a head coaching job, but not even an interview?
NFL owners likely will claim they didn’t consider Flores based on what happened during his time with the Dolphins. It was no secret that there were issues between Flores and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, and former Dolphins veteran QB Ryan Fitzpatrick said on the Prime Video pregame show this season that Flores “broke” Tagovailoa and that new coach Mike McDaniel had to restore “his confidence.”
Flores, who spent 11 seasons on Belichick’s coaching staff in New England, wouldn’t be the first assistant to have a rocky start in his head coaching career before receiving a second chance.
It’s difficult to deny the success, Flores had coordinating the Vikings’ defense. The team went from 31st in total defense under Ed Donatell in 2022 to 16th this season (388.7 yards per game vs. 333.2). The pass defense jumped from 31st to 24th, the rush defense from 20th to eighth and the Vikings went from tied for 28th (25.1 a game) to tied for 13th (21.3) in scoring defense. The Vikings also made a big move in the DVOA metric, going from 24th to 11th in the NFL.
The defense did fall off late, surrendering 30 points per game during a season-ending four-game losing streak. Minnesota had given up 18.6 points in its first 13 games and went 7-6 in that time. The loss of versatile cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. didn’t help, but it also became clear offenses were making adjustments to some of Flores’ unique looks.
The Vikings aren’t going to complain about retaining Flores, especially since there will be a greater familiarity with what he wants to do. The return of star pass rusher Danielle Hunter, who is set to become a free agent, would be huge and there will be an expectation the personnel will be upgraded.
If Flores can work his magic again in 2024, and if his lawsuit is settled, one has to think owners won’t continue to ignore him next winter.
Judd Zulgad is co-host of the Purple Daily Podcast and Mackey & Judd podcast atwww.skornorth.com.
Four things the Minnesota Vikings can learn from the 2024 NFC Championship game.
The San Francisco 49ers went against all odds and completed their comeback against the Detroit Lions to punch their ticket to Super Bowl LVII.
San Francisco rattled off 27 unanswered points in the second half after being down 24-7 at the halftime break. With how Detroit played, it looked like everything had to line up perfectly for San Francisco to get to Las Vegas to avenge their Super Bowl LIV loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
It did.
Back in the NFC North, the Minnesota Vikings are approaching one of the more crucial points in team history. General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has a unique chance to map out the short-term and long-term direction of the Vikings with their decisions this off-season.
These decisions also come with tough questions: Is the roster ready to compete now? If they are, how do they maximize the current window to compete? If they aren’t, how do they build towards competing sooner rather than later?
There is no right or wrong answer, but there are different ways to go about building this roster, and there are some real lessons that can come from watching a thriller like the Lions had against the 49ers.
If you were impressed by Minnesota Vikings safety Josh Metellus’ breakout 2023 season before, wait until you hear this statistic that embodies his remarkable season.
ESPN’s Kevin Seifert reports that Metellus played the most snaps of any player in the NFL with 1,224, according to ESPN’s stat info team, beating out the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Rayshawn Jenkins by a single snap.
Metellus played every position on the defense, a perfect symbol of the versatility that makes Brian Flores’ ever-evolving defense so successful.
Metellus was seen on all three levels, from the defensive end to the roaming safety, from the outside linebacker to the slot cornerback, playing 1065 defensive snaps, 94% of the defensive snaps for 2023 (third-most on the team). What put Metellus over the top was his 194 special teams snaps, around 45% of the total special teams snaps in 2023 (ninth-most on the team).
Metellus’ 2023 season is a testament to the hard work players put into finding their niche in the NFL. Metellus’ superpower this season was that he was a jack-of-all-trades and an intelligent football player who would find a way to stay around the ball and make a play.
Flores took that intelligence and turned it into a weapon to camouflage his intentions and help accomplish the number one goal in his defense: Confuse the quarterback.
Flores is set to return as the defensive coordinator for the Vikings in 2024. Metellus is on contract to be a Viking until 2026 after signing a two-year extension before the season started.
What do these two have in store for us next season? If this season has taught us anything, the possibilities are endless.
Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores has not had any head coaching interviews this cycle and Twitter is frustrated.
Based on the season that the Minnesota Vikings defense had in 2023, you would expect defensive coordinator Brian Flores to have numerous head coaching interviews.
As of Thursday night, January 18th, Flores has exactly zero. You read that correctly, zero.
There are a few reasons you could equate this too but it is most likely the fact that Flores is suing the National Football League for it’s hiring practices.
Over the course of the last week, fans and analysts on Twitter took to the social media platform to express their frustration and confusion for why Flores doesn’t have any interviews during this cycle.
After the 2023 season, the staff at Vikings Wire picked who was the Most Valuable Player for the Minnesota Vikings.
The 2023 National Football League season is over for the Minnesota Vikings and now it’s time to reflect on what was and what could have been.
The Vikings had quite the roller coaster ride this season. After starting 1-4, they lost wide receiver Justin Jefferson and went on a five-game winning streak and won six out of their next eight games. They ultimately lost their final four to finish the season 7-10.
As we reflect back on the season that was for the Vikings, we as a staff took a look at it in multiple ways by handing out awards in different categories.
Here are our choices for Vikings offensive player of the year.
The perfect head coaching candidate for every current vacancy around the NFL.
There have been a plethora of teams around the NFL that decided to move on from their now former head coaches. From the totally expected to the outright shocking, there are currently eight head coaching vacancies around the NFL- each one with a candidate that could help turn their tides.
Side note: I don’t think Bill Belichick or Mike Vrabel take any current vacancy.
