One head coach may have shot down the Commanders’ hopes of stealing their defensive coordinator to fix Washington’s struggles
The Commanders may not have a shot to even attempt to steal Brian Flores away from the Vikings after Kevin O’Connell’s latest comments about keeping him in Minnesota.
The Washington Commanders have a long offseason ahead once they finish up their Week 18 matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles.
The NFL doesn’t wait for anyone, and the offseason will get rolling quickly once that next Monday hits, and teams will start making changes to their coaching staff. The Commanders have their own changes and critical decisions to make for next season.
Finding a new defensive coordinator should be the top priority once the season ends, so they can begin working on a really bad roster. There will be a list of candidates to target, but Kevin O’Connell may have taken one top target off the board.
The Commanders may be down one top defensive coordinator candidate before the offseason begins
The Commanders need to act fast and be aggressive as soon as the season ends, and that starts with finding a new defensive coordinator. The first thing head coach Dan Quinn needs to do is fire Joe Whitt Jr., as he should have earlier in the season, and change his approach to his scheme and philosophy on defense.
They need to look at the top options available around the league, and Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores should be the top target with his contract expiring this offseason. It won’t be easy, however, and the only way to hire someone this offseason is by promoting them; it can’t be a lateral move, like defensive coordinator to defensive coordinator.
Flores is just the defensive coordinator for the Vikings, so the Commanders could always make him the defensive coordinator and another title to go with it, like assistant head coach, which currently belongs to Brian Johnson, and it would be a promotion.
They might not even get a chance, however, after O’Connell expressed his desire to keep Flores around in Minnesota. He even talked about the possibility of head-coaching interviews around the league instead of just defensive coordinator ones.
“We’ve had recent dialog, very, very good dialog,” O’Connell said. Flo [Brian Flores] knows I love him. He was the guy three years ago that I identified to bring in here, and the growth and just our relationship, and what he’s meant to me personally is so massive. . .I absolutely want Brian Flores to be the defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings, as long as we can have them. He’s demonstrated a lot of things.
“Having gone through the process of the head coach hiring process before myself, you know, I imagine he’s going to be a pretty popular guy there as well, and rightly so. He’s earned everything. And that doesn’t take away from the route we want to go to make sure he’s our defensive coordinator here for the foreseeable future.”
The Commanders’ and Vikings’ defenses are night and day different
We saw firsthand how good the Vikings’ defense is this season after it shut out the Commanders just weeks ago, and Flores would bring a revival to Washington. The difference between the two defenses is so bad that it looks like they’re playing a different sport.
| Defensive Rankings | Commanders | Vikings |
| Pass Yards Allowed Per Game | 243.4 (28th) | 168.8 (3rd) |
| Rushing Yards Allowed Per Game | 145.7 (31st) | 123.9 (22nd) |
| Points Allowed Per Game | 27.1 (27th) | 20.6 (10th) |
| Turnovers Forced This Season | 9 (31st) | 21 (9th) |
| Total Yards Per Game | 388.8 (31st) | 292.7 (6th) |
General manager Adam Peters has to fix the roster, especially on defense. That starts with getting the new defensive coordinator to gameplan what the scheme looks like and what players are missing. Their search to get it right will be the most crucial decision of the offseason, but the Commanders might have to keep looking if Flores doesn’t even make it to the market.
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