Vikings Part Ways With Coach Midseason, Insider Says

Getty General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah of the Minnesota Vikings.

There was little word on the whereabouts of Minnesota Vikings defensive line coach Chris Rumph, who was on “personal leave” since October, before news broke that he was officially hired by Clemson to be a defensive ends coach on December 4.

In light of Rumph’s hiring, the Star Tribune’s Andrew Krammer reported that Rumph and the Vikings had parted ways midseason.

“Rumph was let out of the final year of his contract with the Vikings, according to a league source, in the middle of his first season under coordinator Brian Flores,” Krammer wrote on December 4.

Rumph joined the Vikings in 2022 under former defensive coordinator Ed Donatell and is one of two defensive position coaches to go on leave this season. Linebackers/pass rush specialist Mike Smith took a leave of absence from the team just six days before the start of the regular season.

Assistant defensive line coach Patrick Hill has filled Rumph’s role alongside assistant head coach Mike Pettine. With 10 years of coaching experience under his belt, Hill was hired in the offseason after serving as a defensive analyst for LSU in 2022.

“I love Chris Rumph,” O’Connell said in an October 22 ESPN article at the time of Rumph’s leave. “He is one of the first coaches I hired here, and … he means the world to me.”

Starting next year, Rumph returns to Clemson, where he was D-line coach from 2006 to 2010.

“For me, this is coming home,” Rumph said in a statement, per the Charlotte Observer. “Clemson is a great fit for me and my family in terms of the town and the quality of the people…”

Harrison Smith Says Brian Flores Cures Vikings’ ‘Brainwashed’ Defense

GettyVikings safety Harrison Smith

Believe it or not, what Brian Flores has done with the Vikings defense is unprecedented.

Flores has developed a new defensive scheme that has not been seen in the NFL before — a six-man front with zone coverages behind it — that has changed his players’ perspectives of what’s possible on the defensive side of the football.

“You’re programmed to think that there’s these buckets of defenses,” safety Harrison Smith told ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. “Everybody has their own styles, but it’s like you’re only allowed to do certain things with 11 guys, and [Flores’ scheme] kind of breaks that in some senses. The rules of the game are just ingrained in you, even though they’re not rules. It’s just what we’ve all been brainwashed into thinking over the years. It turns out you can do more, and that’s been really fun to see.”

The new scheme has paid dividends for a defense that could have regressed with the departures of Za’Darius Smith, Dalvin Tomlinson, Eric Kendricks and Patrick Peterson.

After ranking 28th in points allowed last season. Flores has the Vikings defense ranked eighth in scoring through 12 games in his first season as defensive coordinator.

Vikings Defense Pulls Back on the Blitz, Makes the Difference

GettyDefensive coordinator Brian Flores of the Minnesota Vikings.

Flores’ arrival assumed he would install his aggressive, blitz-heavy style of play-calling to the defense — and that has proven true.

The Vikings lead the NFL with a 46.7% blitz rate with this season, per Pro Football Reference, however, Flores pulled back on blitzing midseason after the defense was getting gashed far too often.

Through the first three weeks, the Vikings blitzed on 63% of defensive snap — the highest rate ESPN has ever recorded since 2006. The defense allowed 259 yards rushing to the Philadelphia Eagles and 445 yards passing to the Los Angeles Chargers in consecutive weeks during the first month of the season.

Since then, the defense has sprinkled in different looks and packaged while remaining aggressive, blitzing 41.2% of the time, per ESPN. Pulling back on schemed pressure has allowed room for other packages to shine.

While the six-man rush remains the Vikings’ calling card, deploying it three times as much as the next-highest team and five times more than the NFL average, the defense is also using a three-man rush twice as often as any other team. When dropping eight players into coverage on those rushes, the Vikings have corraled five sacks and three interceptions.

“Sometimes the implied threat of it is just as good as the pressure itself,” Pettine told ESPN. “I think Flo’s in a good place there. Part of it was trying to figure out who we were and maybe who we weren’t. … I think we found an identity and honed in on an area of the package that we knew was causing teams problems. Some of the things that we’re doing has limited what some offenses have done. We’ve forced teams to change who they are, which is a good thing.”