The Vikings are headed to Lambeau Field on Sunday with Kirk Cousins on track to start, and the timing could hardly be more delicate. Minnesota has dropped back-to-back games to Detroit and Buffalo, and Kevin O’Connell’s offense has managed just 21 points across those two losses. That’s the backdrop for a bigger question hanging over the franchise: what happens if the slide keeps going?
One possibility that keeps coming up is Brian Flores. But according to NFL insider Tony Pauline, the answer from the people he checked with was mostly a hard no.
Pauline said he contacted four longtime NFL front office sources, people with more than 125 years of combined experience, and asked whether Flores would still be with the Vikings in 2027 or land another head coaching job. Three of the four told him directly that they did not think Flores would get another shot.
One source said Flores had burned too many bridges. Another called him a strong defensive coordinator who is not head coaching material and compared him to Robert Saleh.
The fourth source would only say it was a difficult question and would not commit either way.
Pauline also laid out his own hypothetical: if Minnesota’s offense completely falls apart and the Vikings decide to move on from O’Connell, would they turn to Flores from within? The response there was just as skeptical.
Two of Pauline’s sources said there was “no way” the Vikings would fire O’Connell. One of them pointed to ownership liking him and called him a good coach.
On the question of Flores as an internal replacement, one source said no outright, while another said maybe, but wasn’t sure.
Flores’ résumé is already well known. He was the Miami Dolphins’ head coach from 2019 to 2021, spent 2022 with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and joined Minnesota on Feb.
6, 2023. He was also a candidate for the Ravens and Steelers head coaching jobs last January, and then signed a contract extension with the Vikings on Jan. 21, 2026 while still in the running for those openings.
The team did not announce the terms.
Now in his fourth season running the Vikings defense, Flores has a unit that’s doing plenty to strengthen his case on that side of the ball. Minnesota is allowing 14.5 points per game, best in the NFL, and ranks third at 305.8 yards allowed per game. The Vikings also have 29 sacks, tied with Houston for the league lead.
O’Connell, meanwhile, remains a central figure in the conversation. He was hired as the 10th head coach in Vikings history on Feb. 16, 2022, owns a 49-27 regular-season record, is 0-2 in the playoffs, and was named the 2024 AP Coach of the Year after a 14-3 season. Minnesota gave him a multiyear extension in January 2025 without revealing the terms, and owner Mark Wilf said at the time that KOC “is exactly who we believed him to be when we named him as our head coach.”
Not everybody has been so generous. On Oct. 28, with the Vikings sitting at 6-0, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said O’Connell is “lucky he’s got a damn job.”
Pauline’s report also touched on Caleb Banks, and that part of the story sounded even less encouraging. Back in late August, Pauline said the Vikings’ new front office was already questioning the selection. Now, according to his original source, that feeling has escalated to the point that “they just don’t like him at all.”
Banks, the 18th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, was a healthy scratch in Monday’s 23-6 loss to the Bills. Pauline said there have been recent rumblings that GM Nolan Teasley and company are not fans of Banks, and his source added that nothing is expected to happen with him during the season. If there is any change, it would come in the offseason, with Flores - who Pauline said has “a lot of say and a lot of pull” - among the people who would help decide it.
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