Inside Vikings’ 3-0 start: The ‘crazy’ defensive scheme of Brian Flores

“The scheme, man, it’s crazy.”

Those were the words of 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy to Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores during on-field handshakes moments after Minnesota’s 23-17 win over San Francisco in Week 2. 

Essentially, Purdy’s nod to Flores was the ultimate compliment an opposing quarterback can give to the defensive coordinator. 

While the third-year passer threw for 319 yards at 8.9 yards per attempt against Flores’ scheme, much of that productivity came during garbage time. Excluding that garbage time, Purdy had an EPA per drop back of -0.390, which was the sixth-lowest of all teams in Week 2. In short, very atypical for a Purdy-Kyle Shanahan-led 49ers offense. 

Perplexing one of the league’s most synergistic coach-quarterback duos was an accomplishment in its own right for Flores and the Vikings. But this wasn’t an anomaly. In Week 3, the Vikings defense rocked C.J. Stroud and the Texans stellar receiver trio of Nico Collins, Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell en route to a 34-7 Minnesota victory. 

In that contest, Houston’s offense managed a meager -0.256 EPA per drop back, the eighth-lowest in football for the week. 

Those back-to-back seismic performances from the Vikings defense sent me to the “film room” — my office off my kitchen. And while it’s much easier for me to type this from said office than it was for Purdy to face it live, I can attest — the Vikings’ scheme is indeed crazy. 

Let’s dive in. The world of Flores’ scheme is captivating.

The Flores defense is thriving, allowing 10 point per game … what if the unit allows just 16 points per game the rest of the season? SportsLine Data Scientist Stephen Oh breaks it down. 

I’ll start here — perfectly on-brand, Flores has called the most blitzes (50) on drop backs of any defense through three weeks, and the Vikings’ 39.5% blitz rate, ranks third in the NFL. As a whole, Minnesota is 11th in pressure-creation rate at 37.5%. 

Flores fully embraces his blitz-heavy philosophy. His Vikings unit led the league in blitz rate at 50.7% in 2023. As the Dolphins head coach, Flores’ defense was first in blitz rate in in 2021 and second in 2020. He loves bringing the heat more than any defensive play-caller in football. Clearly. 

Naturally, someone as blitz-happy as Flores has a variety of blitzes in his rolodex. Check this disguised blitz against Purdy and the 49ers. This is not a simple five-man rush, although it appears like one before the snap, and that’s key. 

Notice all that pre-snap and post-snap movement from the Vikings? Flores typically keeps as many of his back-seven players in motion as possible before the snap. And a Vikings blitz rarely comes from what appears to be the most likely defender. 

Even when it does happen, like it did here against the 49ers, Flores brilliantly blends coverages. 

The overhang linebacker at the top of the screen here is the extra rusher, making this a five-man blitz. But note the mixed zone coverage in the secondary. It leads to a bad decision from Purdy, who’s proved to be a lightning-quick processor and astute decision-maker. 

Cover 4 plus Cover 2 = Cover 6, which wasn’t invented by Flores, but it’s a look the Vikings roll into relatively often, particularly when they don’t appear to be complicated before the snap within the front seven. Essentially, if a quarterback thinks he’s getting a reasonably vanilla look up front, chances are Flores will, at the very least, blend the coverage.

On that play, even if Purdy got to his second read on the other side of the field — and the likelihood was decreased because of the blitz — he would’ve been staring at a different coverage with defensive backs carrying out different responsibilities. Not exactly an easy processing task for the brain while under duress in the span of, at most, two seconds or so late in a play. 

Flores is smart. He understands his schematic reputation around the league and uses that to his advantage on multiple levels. He’s not simply dialing up complex, exotic blitzes every week with surprise fifth and sixth rushers to the quarterback. With the blitz at the forefront of the offensive coordinator’s mind, Flores is often showing blitz, then backing into heavy coverage looks, which is the next-level way he’s mystifying opposing quarterbacks.

Like here, on another incomplete pass thrown by Purdy, watch how this “blitz look” — with six Vikings on the line before the snap — rapidly morphs into a four-man rush. And if you’re a safety in Flores’ defense, you’re going to get a workout every game, even before chasing receivers in coverage. 

On that play, the Vikings went from potentially sending two extra defenders to bailing into a coverage in which the original deep safety had responsibility underneath in the 49ers left flat. This play defines the term “changing the picture” for the opposing quarterback. 

If Purdy noticed the rotating safeties a split-second before the snap, his mind hardly had any time at all to process where Minnesota’s pre-snap movement hinted where he should throw the ball. Now, this was just a screen call to San Francisco’s talented fullback, but that defensive call from Flores was a tremendous illustration of how deep in his bag he will go in an attempt to confuse the passer. 

Flores’ play-calling bag also features more subtle, classic disguises. Like here against the Texans. At the snap, this looks like press-man across the board. At the snap, it’s something completely different and … no blitz. 

For as fun and genuinely diverse as Flores’ defense is, respect needs to be paid to GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah for acquiring the “correct” type of players for the defense and, of course, to those players within the system. 

Cornerback Byron Murphy is the ideal versatile slot cornerback with elite-level suddenness and short-area speed to close throwing windows in a flash in zone. Kamu Grugier-Hill still has plenty of fluidity at linebacker. Newcomer Blake Cashman is a high-caliber athlete with coverage chops, and Ivan Pace Jr. is becoming one of the better blitzing linebackers in football. Cameron Bynum has transitioned wonderfully from cornerback to safety. And 34-year-old Stephon Gilmore adds just enough man-coverage experience that likely gives Flores more confidence playing less zone at times.

Oh yeah, and Harrison Smith is still one of the savviest — and physically gifted — safeties in football. There’s no telling where he and Josh Metellus will ultimately settle after the snap. They play off each other extraordinarily well. 

Beyond what all that athleticism and football knowledge in the back seven provides Flores, up front, Andrew Van Ginkel can rush the passer from any alignment, set the edge, or sink in short zones underneath. Jonathan Greenard has been dynamic as Minnesota’s clear-cut No. 1 outside rusher. He has two more pressures — and a slightly higher pressure-creation rate — than former Vikings edge Danielle Hunter entering Week 4.  

Flores’ blitzing obsession in and of itself is a heavy lift for coordinators, offensive lines, and quarterbacks every week. Also combine the seamless multi-layered communication often needed to combat a well-designed and well-executed blitz with the way Flores creatively shows one of those blitzes before backing into a seven-defender coverage potentially with different coverages on each side of the field, and you quickly understand why Purdy offered Flores that postgame praise.