New Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores speaks during a news conference on Monday, Feb. 4, 2019, in Davie, Fla. Hours after his team won the Super Bowl, New England Patriots linebackers coach Flores was hired as head coach of the Miami Dolphins. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson/File)
by Brandon Walker, For New Pittsburgh Courier
In 2003, the Rooney Rule was put in place for NFL teams to give African Americans a fair opportunity to interview and get hired for jobs for coaching and the front office. Twenty years later, the family of the ownership that implemented the rule is the only team in the NFL practicing what they preach.
In the 2022 NFL head coaching cycle, there were nine head coaching vacancies but only two of those were filled by African Americans. Lovie Smith was named the head coach of the Houston Texans and Mike McDaniel was named the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. It should be noted that the Texans’ main target was former NFL quarterback Josh McCown who never coached at either the collegiate or professional level.
Brian Flores, the former head coach of the Dolphins, was recently hired as the senior defensive assistant/linebackers coach for the Steelers, who now have 10 Black coaches on their staff including head coach Mike Tomlin and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin.
The Steelers employ two of the best Black player personnel people in the league in Omar Khan and Brandon Hunt who are the two leading in-house candidates to replace the soon-to-be departing Kevin Colbert. Flores, 40, is currently in a lawsuit with the NFL and the New York Giants, Denver Broncos, and Dolphins for racial discrimination during the hiring process and his firing in Miami.
The Steelers’ hiring of Flores is a home run for both the Steelers and Flores because he is one of the best defensive minds in football. He was the primary defensive play-caller for the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl 53 championship team that held Sean McVay’s innovative high-flying Rams offense to only three points in the game. Flores improved the defense from dead last in scoring defense in his first year in 2019 at almost 31 points per game to 20th in 2020 at 21 points per game and to 16th last season at almost 22 points per game. The Dolphins posted back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in two decades under Flores, but they failed to qualify for the postseason in his three seasons as the head coach. Furthermore, his coaching record against Bill Belichick is 4-2. This is paramount for Tomlin, who is 3-6 against Belichick.
It’s a win for Flores because he gets to coach reigning Defensive Player of the Year T.J. Watt as well as a rising Alex Highsmith who is developing into a bookend pass rusher opposite Watt. His main project is to help turn around 2019 first-round draft pick Devin Bush, who was a major disappointment in the 2021 season coming off his ACL tear the previous season. He will also have Robert Spillane, Buddy Johnson, Taco Charlton, and Derrick Tuszka at his disposal. If the Steelers can get back to the top 10 in the NFL in total defense like they were the previous two seasons before ranking 24th last season, then Flores can be right back at the top of the list for head coaching candidates for the 2023 season.
One thing that Flores can also bring to the table is a different set of eyes for the defense. He was great at in-game adjustments in his time in New England and Miami. The Steelers often had difficulty closing out games on defense in 2021. Furthermore, the Steelers let opponents get back into games that they had in hand as well as letting close games get away from them because they were too slow in making adjustments on defense, waiting for Watt or Cameron Heyward to bail them out. Flores will represent a needed shift for a defense that lacks discipline when it comes to coverage assignments and gap discipline. Flores will bring accountability to a defense that seems to be lacking at times last season.
The Steelers put their necks on the line with the Flores hire but if their defense can get back to their 2019-2020 form, then it will be worth it for everyone involved.
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