It’s safe to say former Vikings assistant coach Mike Pettine, whose retirement was announced earlier this month, won’t be keeping in touch with defensive coordinator Brian Flores in the years to come.
Pettine, 59, is best known as the head coach of the Browns for two seasons from 2014-15. This week, he did an interview with the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show, and one of the hosts asked him about Flores, who has interviewed for a couple head coaching jobs in the AFC North in this year’s cycle.
The assumption was probably that Pettine would have good things to say about Flores after working together over the past three years. That wasn’t the case.
“Probably not many that I would prefer to share,” Pettine said regarding his thoughts on Flores. “We didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things, and that’s why I spent this past year on offense. I was there in ’23 and ’24 on defense. … I’ll take the high road on that one.”
I think it’s safe to say Mike Pettine (Vikings assistant who “retired” last week) isn’t a huge fan of Brian Flores 😅
Q: What are your thoughts on Brian Flores?
A: “Probably not many that I would prefer to share…”
(via @ultCLEsports) pic.twitter.com/VDx0Dx67rt
— Phil Mackey 🎙 (@PhilMackey) January 23, 2026
Pettine was hired by the Vikings on Kevin O’Connell’s initial staff in 2022 to be the assistant head coach. That was O’Connell reuniting with the coach who gave him his first NFL job in 2015, when he was hired as the Browns’ quarterbacks coach. Pettine, whose background is all about defense, had outside linebackers coach added to his title in 2024. But apparently, due to his disagreements with Flores, he spent the 2025 season working with the offensive side of the ball.
His comments about Flores raise some highly speculative questions. Is it possible Pettine wanted to keep coaching but was essentially forced out of the building in Minnesota to accomodate Flores? 59 isn’t all that old in the NFL coaching world. If the Vikings felt like that relationship was broken or toxic and they had to choose one of them, it probably wasn’t a difficult decision to go with the coordinator who has led one of the best defenses in the league in each of the last two years.
Flores has a bit of reputation, mostly developed during his three-year stint as the Dolphins’ head coach (2019-21), for being somewhat difficult to work with behind the scenes. With that said, O’Connell and various Vikings defensive players have had nothing but good things to say about Flores during his time in Minnesota.
Flores signed a new contract with the Vikings earlier this week, so he’ll remain their DC unless he’s hired as the Steelers’ head coach.
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