For the second season in a row, the Patriots will be taking the field with a new head coach. After the failed Jerod Mayo promotion led to a 4-13 season in 2024, the Patriots will be conducting an expansive search for their next head coach. The team will talk to some who have previous New England ties and others from outside the organization. Due to the abundance of cap space, a top-five draft pick and quarterback Drake Maye, the job will be sought after. It is imperative that Robert Kraft gets this right; one year of the post-Bill Belichick Patriots has already been wasted. Here are the top three candidates the Krafts should consider.
1. Brian Flores, Vikings Defensive Coordinator
Patriots fans will remember Flores as the de facto defensive coordinator for the 2018 Super Bowl championship team. The 2018 defense was one of the better units in the league: while they were 21st in yards per game, the Patriots ranked seventh in points per game, seventh in EPA per play, 11th in rushing yards per game, 16th on third downs, and held an explosive Rams offense to three points in the Super Bowl. While the numbers are not elite, they do represent an upgrade over an inconsistent 2017 defense that allowed 41 points in the Super Bowl to Nick Foles.
Flores’ experience in New England goes much deeper than in his role in 2018, having joined the organization in 2004. In that time, Flores worked on offense, special teams, in scouting and, of course, on defense.
After leaving New England, Flores became head coach of the Miami Dolphins. He turned around one of the worst teams in the league and had winning seasons in his second and third year. He was fired under controversial circumstances and currently has a discrimination lawsuit filed against the league. Flores did have a sour relationship with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, which may have contributed to his firing as well. Since then, he spent a year in Pittsburgh working under Mike Tomlin and has spent the past two seasons as Vikings defensive coordinator.
It is these three years, not his years in New England, that are the biggest selling point for Flores. In Pittsburgh he got the chance to experience a totally different system and organization than New England or Miami and learn from Tomlin. In Minnesota he has turned around a floundering defense into an attacking unit that gives opponents major problems each week.
While with the Vikings, two additional things stand out about Flores. First is his ability to adapt. In New England and Miami, Flores ran man coverage at one of the highest rates in the league. With the Vikings, he has called man coverage at the fourth-lowest rate in the league, per Pro Football Network. This ability to adapt serves any head coach well, and adaptation was a hallmark of the Belichick/Brady Patriots. The second key piece is Minnesota’s offense. Head coach Kevin O’Connell comes from the Sean McVay system, so Flores has been exposed to that system up close for the past two years. If hired he could either bring that system fully over to New England or try to blend it with the previous Patriots systems that many players are already used to.
2. Mike Vrabel, Former Titans Head Coach
Vrabel won three Super Bowls as a linebacker for the Patriots. During that time, he was a key piece of one of the best defenses in the NFL and a locker room leader. By all indications he loves New England and would be interested in returning to the Patriots. His glowing comments on the franchise in 2023 at Gillette Stadium reportedly drew the ire of Titans ownership.
Prior to becoming Titans head coach, Vrabel spent time at Ohio State and with the Houston Texans as linebackers coach and then defensive coordinator. Similar to Flores, this time outside of the organization would serve Vrabel well in a potential return to New England.
While with the Titans, Vrabel posted a 54-45 record and made the playoffs in three consecutive seasons from 2019-21. Famously, Vrabel coached the Titans to a wild card round win in Gillette Stadium in January 2020, which was Tom Brady’s last game as a Patriot. Vrabel led the Titans to a surprising AFC championship game appearance that season.
During his tenure in Tennessee, he worked with Matt LaFleur and Arthur Smith, both of whom ran his offense. That system, especially LaFleur’s, is similar to what the Patriots ran with Alex Van Pelt this season. The Titans were a run-first team with All-Pro Derrick Henry, but quarterback Ryan Tannehill had the best seasons of his career there as well. Vrabel also coached top-10 defenses in 2019 and 2020. The Titans also had the third-best penalty margin during his tenure, per Pro Football Network.
Vrabel did have a falling out with ownership and the executive level, which resulted in the in-season firing of general manager Jon Robinson in 2022. This was due in part to the controversial trade of star wide receiver AJ Brown in 2022. After four consecutive winning seasons, Vrabel had losing seasons in 2022 and 2023 and was fired. He spent 2024 as a consultant with the Cleveland Browns where, ironically, he got an up-close look at the same offense Van Pelt ran with the Patriots.
3. Ben Johnson, Lions Offensive Coordinator
Johnson is arguably the hottest name on the market. He leads a Detroit offense that has been the most innovative in the league in his three years as offensive coordinator and currently holds the top seed in the NFC playoffs after a 15-2 season. Prior to joining the Lions in 2019 as an offensive assistant, Johnson spent seven seasons with the Miami Dolphins and three with Boston College.
The Lions have been top five in yards and points in Johnson’s three years running the show. Obviously, part of this is due to elite personnel, including the best offensive line in the NFL. However, Johnson routinely out-schemes his opponents and develops trick or misdirection plays that give Detroit a distinct advantage.
He doesn’t have the head coaching experience that Flores and Vrabel possess, but he has two things they do not: considerable offensive coaching experience and a track record og high-level quarterback play. Jared Goff came to Detroit as part of the Matthew Stafford trade. Despite making Super Bowl LIII, the Rams felt Goff had a ceiling and was not the guy to lead them to a championship. The trade paid off for both sides. The Rams won a Super Bowl with Stafford and Goff has had the best seasons of his career while working with Johnson. Goff’s completion percentages in 2023 and 2024 were the best of his career and his quarterback rating in 2024 was his best. He put up big numbers with both teams, but he has been more efficient in Detroit.
Johnson has also been able to adapt to a variety of lineup changes this season, especially at the skill positions. David Montgomery was lost due to injury in December and Jameson Williams missed two games earlier in the season after missing four due to a suspension in 2023. The Detroit offense didn’t miss a beat without either one.
Johnson would be another first-time head coach, but he would come in with a proven offensive system and a track record of getting the most out of his quarterback.