Jacksonville Jaguars make request to interview Vikings DC Brian Flores for head coach opening

The Jacksonville Jaguars have officially announced on their Twitter page that they requested to interview Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores for their head coaching job. He’s a legitimate head coaching candidate thanks to the work he’s done with the Vikings the past few years. After their defense ranked 28th in points allowed two years ago, they improved to 13th in 2023. And in the 2024 season, Minnesota currently ranks fifth in defensive points allowed.

Flores spent one year in Pittsburgh as the Steelers’ Senior Defensive Assistant and linebackers’ coach. Before that, he spent three years as a Dolphins head coach with a record of 24-25. His split with Miami garnered national attention after he filed a class action lawsuit against the Dolphins, the NFL, and several other franchises.

Brian Flores played football at the collegiate level at Boston College as a linebacker from 1999 to 2002. As he transitioned from playing to coaching, he first served as a member of the New England Patriots scouting department. Flores was a scouting assistant for the Patriots for two years and a pro scout for them the following two years before transitioning into coaching.

Staying with New England, Flores would go on to spend over 10 seasons as a member of the Patriots coaching staff, serving in a variety of different roles over the years, like special teams’ assistant, defensive assistant, safeties coach, and linebackers coach. He was on staff for four of New England’s Super Bowl victories, and the day after the Patriots 2019 Super Bowl win, he was announced as the Miami Dolphins 12th head coach.

He spent three seasons at the helm for Miami, going 24-25 as their head coach and putting together back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in nearly 20 years for the Dolphins in 2020 and 2021. Flores was fired on January 10 of 2022 by the Dolphins, which was followed by him filing a class-action lawsuit against the NFL along with the Dolphins, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos for alleged racial discrimination during his interview process.

Justin Rudolph also contributed to this article.