The Vikings' Anti-Shanahan Defense
The Vikings' Anti-Shanahan Defense
Don't look now, but the Vikings have the best defense in the NFL and it's built to take down the number one offensive system in the league.
Football is a team sport. Both sides of the ball and special teams must be excellent to win a championship. Most coaches would use the term ‘complementary football’ to describe this synthesis. Football is still a team sport, and that is what we see in Minnesota—total football.
Head Coach Kevin O’Connell took the helm of Minnesota in ‘22 and, like most McVay assistants, looked to hire a Fangio-adjacent defensive coordinator. McVay had hit gold with Branden Staley in ‘20 and parlayed that success into a Super Bowl with Raheem Morris (current Falcons Head Coach) running his version of the Fangio system. O’Connell was there for both of those seasons.
The most obvious answer was to hire Vic Fangio, who had just been fired as the Broncos' Head Coach. Instead, Fangio took a year sabbatical as a consultant for the Eagles, who would lose to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. With Fangio out, Ejiro Evero headed to Denver to join his friend Nathaniel Hackett, and O’Connell turned to long-time Fangio assistant Ed Donatell.
The Vikings’ defense was one of the worst against the run in ‘22 and finished 25th in DVOA (FTN). Still, Minnesota was successful that year, going 13-4 but winning mainly due to its high-powered offense. After a home playoff loss to the Giants that saw Daniel Jones (yes, that Daniel Jones) go 24/35 for 301 yards and two TDs, KOC decided to make a change. The defense was the main issue, and O'Connell pivoted away from Donatell and the Fangio system.
When asked about why he hired Flores, O’Connell had this to say:
“…understanding how similar our football philosophies were, how important it is for him to really play complementary football, not so much ‘Hey, we have a great offense, so we just want to go out there and just hold on…’”
“…the aggressive nature that, you know, his background kinda on tape, and when you really study, his defenses and what it is like to play against him and his defenses was something that I have always been intrigued about.”
O’Connell wanted to recreate the Fangio system, but Donatell was too passive, and it didn’t match the style or pace of play he wanted in Minnesota. Too many mistakes in the backend and a porous front seven made it challenging to control the game defensively. O’Connell needed someone to amplify the talent already on the roster until they could retool the unit in ‘24.
Flores was available as a senior assistant on Mike Tomlin’s staff in Pittsburgh. Regardless of what happened in South Florida, Flores was regarded as one of the best coordinators on the market. In Miami, Flores’ system had top-10 defenses against the pass and were very aggressive, typically hovering around the 40% Blitz Rate mark.
Luckily for O’Connell, Fores also studied how he could evolve his defense from what he had done previously in Miami. Like O’Connell, Mike McDaniel had discovered first-hand what it was like to have the #2 guy run the playbook in Josh Boyer, the defensive coordinator under Flores, who McDaniel retained. O’Connell interviewed Flores and hired him as an aggressive DC opposite his high-powered offense.
With the Steelers, Flores had access to Pat Narduzzi, Pitt's Head Coach, a Quarters guru, and the godfather of Hot Blitzes. Being at the office every day and having the ability to walk over and talk to Narduzzi allowed Flores to start imagining a defense that could play these Hot coverages at the NFL level.
Flores is a longtime Patriots assistant who worked his way from the scouting room to Bill Belichick's defensive coordinator. When he got his opportunity in Miami, he made that vaunted defensive system his own. The system rarely ran Quarters and didn’t carry Hot coverages. But Flores wanted to utilize the lessons he had learned working with Tomlin and learning from Narduzzi at his next stop.
Flores was known for his ‘Bengal Hawk’ blitz (above), which aligned six or more defenders on the line of scrimmage and popped out into the formation's Hot or ‘release’ areas. As QBs scanned the field, DBs were stacked directly on WRs, and the entire box was crowded with defenders. It put protections and QBs in a blinder.
Still, the Vikings DC wanted to build more nuance into his pressure concepts and add Hot blitzes to early downs while transitioning to a Quarters scheme. O’Connell had charged him with creating a defense that would be difficult to call plays against. KOC had seen how that chess match had helped McVay evolve his offense into one that won a Super Bowl. Looking for redemption (and payback), Flores was happy to help build an anti-Shanahan/McVay system.
Minnesota’s personnel in ‘23 wasn’t suited for what Flores initially wanted to do, so he doubled down on the pressure. From the start, the Vikings were going to mitigate talent issues with pressure, and for the most part, it worked. Minnesota finished eleventh in DVOA last year, all while blitzing on almost 60% of their snaps.
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Beginning last summer, word started to leak that the Vikings’ defense was doing something odd. QB Kirk Cousins was getting frustrated, and the offense had difficulty moving the ball in team situations.
Then, in the preseason games, the Vikings played their base defense that Flores was expected to run. Through three games in August, the Vikings had a 26% Blitz Rate and mainly ran Cover 3 (~40%) and Cover 1 (30%) during those games. Everything looked normal, so what was all the fuss about?
When the regular season came, the Vikings began blitzing at a rate of about 60% of their snaps. Flores employed Safety Josh Metellus as a Big Nickel who blitzed on most downs. Against the Eagles, Minnesota had a five-across look, something you typically see in college, which left the Philly offense stunted, except for the ground game. This was different, and Flores was willing to lean right into it.
After Kirk Cousins’ injury, the Minnesota season was all but lost. Still, Flores kept working on the system. Eventually, teams got wise and started to take advantage of space downfield; a great example of this was the second match-up with the Packers, who had Jordan Love attack deep. Still, teams didn’t know what to do early on outside of perimeter screens.
‘23 was a season of contrast; Minnesota led the NFL in Blitz Rate, Drop-8 usage, and Cover 2. There wasn’t anything in between for the Vikings. They either blitzed or dropped eight into coverage.
Flores had found a recipe that worked; it just needed to be refined. Players would need to be added, too. The Vikings might have had the highest Blitz Rate but held one of the lowest Pressure Rates. Those aren’t the numbers you want from a blitz-centric system. Flores knew he needed nuance and talent; he got that this offseason.
The Vikings inserted LB Blake Cashman (Texans), CB Stephon Gilmore (Cowboys), Edge Jonathan Greenard (Texans), iDL Jerry Tillery (Raiders), and Edge Andrew Van Ginkel (Dolphins) into the starting lineup. The addition of CB Saquile Griffin (Panthers) allowed Flores to move CB Byron Murphy inside at times, creating a traditional Nickel package with three CBs, something they didn’t have last season.
Last year, Flores was relegated to playing Big Penny (5-1) with Metellus as the Ni and Ivan Pace Jr. as the solo ‘backer. Depth was also added with LB Kam Gruiger-Hill (Panthers), Edge Dallas Turner (Alabama), and Edge Jihad Ward (Giants). The roster moves allowed Flores to strengthen his interior D-line, which was excellent at stopping the run, and utilize multiple packages while amplifying his scheme.
Through three weeks, the Vikings' defense is #1 in DVOA, leading the NFL in sacks with 15. The Vikings are still atop the Blitz Rate board at ~50%, but they do it in different ways and with different personnel.
Last year’s static looks up front allowed better teams to prepare. The only trick was in the backend, but even then, Flores was limited in what he could do.
Flores also leads the NFL in Quarters usage, at ~32%, and split-field (MOFO) coverages at ~70%. He also leads the NFL in Quarters usage when blitzing, a trend that Chiefs’ Steve Spagnuolo has been at the forefront of for years. Now it’s in Minneapolis.
In Week 1, the Vikings made the Giants' Daniel Jones look abysmal, with a QBR of 24.4 (ESPN) and two interceptions, one by Van Ginkel for a defensive touchdown. In Week 2, Flores proved he might be on to something, beating the 49ers 23-17 at home. San Fransisco garnered yards between the 30s, but the Vikings' defense kept the 49ers at bay regarding the Red Zone. San Fransisco even went 2/10 on 3rd Downs.
This past Sunday, another high-powered Shanahan offense, the Texans, came into town. Flores’ defense held Houston to 38 yards on the ground, which is the system's engine. CJ Stroud had two interceptions and only threw for 215 yards. Nico Collins and Stephan Diggs got their yards, but similar to the 49ers, didn’t garner TDs.
Two weeks in a row, Flores has proven he can take the best of the Shanahan/McVay system and win. His game plan against the Texans mitigated Houston’s use of pre-snap motion with two-high coverages (~64%) and utilized Hot blitzes on early downs to kill the run. It was a masterclass in attacking the Shanahan system.
Teams have found success against the 49ers when they blitz and play man coverage. The ideal defense can control the front, limiting the run game. Though San Fransisco has a tremendous run playbook and explosive play-action passes off those looks, the system can struggle in drop-back passing settings.
