Brian Flores' diabolical blitz rates -- equaling nearly 100 tons of pressure -- fueling Vikings' 2026 rampage

The coordinator is sending nearly five pass rushers per snap at a historic 71% rate as Minnesota's dominant unit prepares to face his former team in Miami

Oct 1, 2026 at 8:38 am ET • 5 min read

The Vikings are the first team to start 3-0 with under 250 total yards each game since the 1957 Cleveland Browns, who had a rookie running back by the name of Jim Brown win NFL MVP that year. 

Well, there's no Jim Brown on Minnesota's offense so how exactly is a team with the most punts in the NFL (18) off to a 3-0 start? It's the wizardry of defensive coordinator Brian Flores, who is blitzing at earth-shattering rates this year.

Keep in mind, a Flores defense has led the NFL in blitz rate in each of his past four seasons as a head coach of defensive coordinator entering 2026. It was around 50% last year. Now it's skyrocketed to an astronomical 71% this year.

Minnesota blitzed 78% of the time in Week 1 vs. the Packers in a game they outscored Green Bay 22-0 in the fourth quarter. 

They ramped it up to 81% in Week 2 in an ugly weather game vs. a Bears team coming off a 59-point game. The Vikings won, 9-3. Finally, in Week 3 Flores controlled himself with a measly 57% blitz rate in a pissing match vs. fellow blitz king Todd Bowles. Those are the three highest blitz rates by any team in a game this season.

It all amounts to by far the highest blitz rate in the league this year at 71% with the Buccaneers a very distant second at 46%. This is such a wide gap (as you can see below) that it's the same as the disparity between the second-highest and 30th-highest blitz rates this season.

As you can imagine, nobody comes out of the gates blitzing like this. It's the highest blitz rate through three games in the past 20 years, ahead of the 2023 Vikings with Flores (65%). It's the highest blitz rate by any team in any three-game span since 2007.

It's the signature of a defense that has been the best in the NFL this year. The Vikings lead the NFL in defensive EPA per game, points per drive allowed, sacks, third down defense, red zone defense, among other categories this year.

Vikings' defensive dominance this season

		NFL RANK
Defensive EPA/game	13.6	1st
Pts/drive	1.1	1st
Sacks	14	1st
Pass success rate	65%	1st
Comp pct	51%	1st
Blitz rate	71%	1st
Third down defense	23%	1st
Red zone defense	13%	1st
Passer rating	67.7	1st

That much pressure has to have an impact on an offense. It might not look like it watching on TV but we don't have to deal with it right in our grills like a quarterback. Let's crunch the numbers on the pure power the purple people eaters are proliferating this season (no, I could not resist the wordplay!). 

The Vikings are playing base defense at one of highest rates in the NFL, means even more mass barring down on the quarterback. They average nearly five pass rushers per play this season and 1,300 average pounds of pass rushers per play, both the highest figures in the NFL.

Combine that with over 100 pass plays this year and the Vikings have sent roughly 175,000 pounds of pass-rushers at the quarterback this season (or nearly 100 tons of pressure). The Lions are the only team with more, a result of more pass plays faced. I'm going to resist the urge to do more math (I did google Newton's Law of Motion for what it's worth) which would tell us that's a crapload of force Flores has sent at opposing passers this season.

What B-Flo cooking up for Week 4 grudge match?

That's a scary thought. 

Aside from the paycheck, I would not want to be Malik Willis on Sunday when the Vikings host the Dolphins, Flores' former team. It will be the first time Flores faces Miami since he joined Minnesota. His track record suggests Miami should be ready for anything. Check out two of Flores' matchups vs. another former team, the Patriots, when he was the Dolphins head coach. There was one game in 2019 when Flores rushed three or fewer pass rushers 18 times, one of the highest rates by any team on record. He went with another outlier gameplan in 2020 vs. the Patriots, playing man coverage 81% of the time, one of the highest rates on record.

This is the same coach that once used at least six pass rushers in a game 28 times, one that in another game used a cover-0 blitz vs. Lamar Jackson and the Ravens around 20 times, another record. The Vikings account for 10 of the 19 highest single-game blitz rates in four seasons under Flores. 

Miami could be in store for quite the gameplan, and it'll probably be another onslaught of blitzes based on Flores' comments to reporters last Tuesday. 

"I tell our guys all the time, if we're going to go down, we're going to go down a certain way. We're going to go down blitzing people." 

The Vikings will be looking to extend an eight-game win streak that dates back to last year. They have the top scoring defense in the league in that span while racking up 16 takeaways and 32 sacks. Plus, they've done it with a combo of J.J. McCarthy, Max Brosmer, Carson Wentz and Kyler Murray at quarterback.

Will Flores get another head coaching job?

The extended success driven by Flores' mad scientist approach on defense is clearly helping the Vikings come out of the failed J.J. McCarthy era with some momentum. Does that mean the 45-year-old Flores will become a hot commodity on the head coach market, though?

That hasn't been the case at all since he was fired as the Dolphins head coach five years ago after back-to-back winning seasons. The move was driven by dysfunction more than results as there was reported tension between Flores and GM Chris Grier, and a strained relationship with then-promising quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. 

Flores has had a handful of head coaching interviews in recent years, including with the Ravens and Steelers this offseason, but has yet to land one, potentially due to several factors.

1. He has a defensive background in a league where coaches with offensive backgrounds are getting more of the head coaching jobs
2. There are lingering concerns over his coaching style from the fallout in Miami
3. Teams could be waiting for a resolution from his discrimination lawsuit against the NFL (and several teams), which will bleed into 2027 (and possibly beyond). The lawsuit was originally filed in February 2022 and alleges discriminatory hiring practices, including "sham" interviews conducted to satisfy the Rooney Rule.

The latter could be the final hangup for a brilliant mind that is pushing the boundaries of defensive play-calling as he further distances himself from his Dolphins exit. Eventually that will be resolved and as Flores' reputation continues to not only rebound but soar, another head coaching gig should be inevitable.