It took some time, but it finally happened.
The Vikings have announced that defensive coordinator Brian Flores has signed a contract extension. His three-year deal ran through the end of the 2025 regular season.
The Vikings were confident Flores would stay, if he didn’t get a head-coaching job elsewhere.
“Brian has a unique ability to connect with players, understand their skill sets, and put them in positions to maximize their impact on the field,” coach Kevin O’Connell said in a release. “The identity of our defense is a reflection of his leadership and preparation. On a personal level, I’ve really valued the relationship we’ve built over the last three years, and that shared trust, alignment and high standard will continue to be critical to our success.”
Flores interviewed with both the Ravens and Steelers for their head-coaching vacancies. The Pittsburgh interview happened on Wednesday. It’s unclear whether the Vikings’ announcement means he has withdrawn from consideration for either job.
Flores, who coached the Dolphins from 2019 through 2021, also interviewed for the vacant defensive coordinator position in Washington.
The Vikings believed the Cowboys might make a run at Flores for their vacant defensive coordinator job. He was never interviewed, which possibly means the Cowboys knew what he wanted financially, and weren’t willing to pay it.
Regardless, the silence has been broken. The Vikings have a new deal with Flores. They presumably wouldn’t have announced it if they thought he may be leaving.
Mike McCarthy has completed his interview to be the next head coach of the Steelers.
The Steelers announced this afternoon that they have finished an in-person interview with McCarthy.
McCarthy is a Pittsburgh native who spent four years as an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Panthers before beginning his NFL coaching career. He was head coach of the Packers for 13 years and the Cowboys for five years. His record as a head coach is 174-112-2 in the regular season and 11-11 in the postseason, and his 2010 Packers team won the Super Bowl.
Betting odds currently have Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula as the favorite to be the Steelers’ next coach, and McCarthy as the next-most likely to get the job.
Matt Ryan, as the Falcons’ president of football, will oversee all aspects of football for the organization. The team, though, still intends to hire a General Manager.
With Ryan as the primary decision-maker for the Falcons, teams are allowed to block interview requests from the Falcons for the G.M. job. The Steelers apparently won’t, though.
Mark Kaboly of The Pat McAfee Show reports that Steelers assistant General Manager Andy Weidl will interview for the Falcons’ General Manager job.
Weidl joined the Steelers after the draft in 2022.
He also has worked for the Saints, Ravens and Eagles.
Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores has wrapped up his interview with the Steelers.
The Steelers announced the completion of the interview on Tuesday afternoon. It was the first in-person interview they have conducted during their search to find Mike Tomlin’s successor.
Flores shares a defensive pedigree with the last three Steelers head coaches, but differs from Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Tomlin because he has been a head coach in the past. Flores went 24-25 in three seasons for the Dolphins before being fired after the 2021 season.
Flores has also interviewed for the Ravens’ head coaching job and he’s met with the Commanders about their defensive coordinator vacancy. His contract in Minnesota is expiring, but Vikings reportedly hope to have him back if he doesn’t become a head coach.
The Steelers are set to interview former Cowboys and Packers head coach Mike McCarthy on Wednesday. Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver is expected to have an in-person interview as well.
With each coaching hire that the Steelers nail — and they’re three-for-three since 1969 — the pressure builds to get the next one right, too.
So here they are, 19 years after their last search. With plenty of good options from which to choose.
The problem with having a bunch of quality candidates is that, eventually, a choice needs to be made. So who will they choose?
For now, the candidates are: Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase, Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula, Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak, Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, and former Cowboys and Packers head coach Mike McCarthy.
As to the franchise’s three most recent coaches, dating back to the first term of the Nixon administration, each one (Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, Mike Tomlin) was a defensive coordinator with no previous head-coaching experience. That formula, if followed again, would point to the likes of Shula, Weaver, Evero, and Minter.
But here’s the basic reality. Since hiring Tomlin in 2007, the game has changed. It has skewed more and more toward offense, with the post-2009 emphasis on player safety making it harder to play old-school, hard-nosed, Steel Curtain defense.
When the NFL started aggressively flagging and fining players for illegal hits on defenseless receivers, there was a disconnect between the league’s application of the rules and the manner in which Tomlin was coaching them. Eventually, the league put Tomlin on the Competition Committee in part to get him to buy in to the new way of playing the game.
As of 2026, it’s impossible for the Steelers to ignore the evolution of the game. And, frankly, their offense has been sluggish at best in the years after the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger. If the Steelers intend to never be in position to draft a franchise quarterback, they’ll need to find and develop one another way, either by hitting on a lower draft pick or getting more out of a veteran than he has done elsewhere. Having an offensive mastermind as the team’s head coach will help.
Then there’s the question of whether they want another coach who’ll stick around for 15 years or longer. The availability of Pittsburgh native Mike McCarthy is intriguing, but he’s 62. Noll (23 seasons), Cowher (15), and Tomlin (19) were each in their 30s when hired.
At first blush, Shula feels like a perfect fit, given that his grandfather, Don, recommended Noll for the job. Only 15 days after Don Shula and Noll worked together in Super Bowl III (which their Colts lost to the Jets), Noll was hired by the Steelers.
But perfection is revealed after the fact. With a coach who isn’t fired because he performs well enough to not be. Plenty of first-time coaches fail, largely because the coordinator and head-coach skillsets are very different.
Wherever it goes, the weight of hiring three straight Super Bowl winners is palpable. And if it’s obvious from the outside, it’s inescapable on the inside.
