Brian Flores
| Miami Dolphins | |
|---|---|
| Position: | Head coach |
| Personal information | |
| Born: | February 24, 1981 Brooklyn, New York |
| Career information | |
| High school: | Poly Prep (Brooklyn, New York) |
| College: | Boston College |
| Career history | |
| As a coach: | |
| |
| As an executive: | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Head coaching record | |
| Regular season: | 16–22 (.421) |
| Record at Pro Football Reference | |
Brian Francisco Flores (born February 24, 1981) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). Prior to joining the Miami Dolphins, Flores served in multiple roles for the New England Patriots organization from 2004 to 2018. Flores was New England's defensive playcaller during his final season coaching for the team, which concluded with the franchise's 6th Super Bowl title in Super Bowl LIII. Following the Super Bowl victory, he was hired in 2019 to become the head coach of the Dolphins.
Early life
Flores was born and raised in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York City to Honduran parents.[1] After attending Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn, Flores played football at Boston College as a linebacker from 1999 through 2002. An injury prevented him from playing in the NFL.[1] Flores grew up a fan of the New York Giants and New York Mets.[2] On August 28, 2020, five days after the shooting of Jacob Blake, Flores revealed that he nearly became a victim of police brutality and racial injustice as police pointed guns at him once during his teenage years, when he still lived in Brooklyn.[3]
Coaching career
New England Patriots
In 2004, at the age of 23, Flores joined the Patriots as a scouting assistant, the same year the franchise won its third Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXIX. He became a pro scout in 2006 before getting promoted to Bill Belichick's coaching staff in 2008, serving as a special teams coaching assistant until the end of the 2009 season. His title was changed to assistant coach offense/special teams in 2010. He was named defensive assistant in 2011, where Flores and the Patriots would appear in Super Bowl XLVI, but lost 21–17 to the New York Giants in a rematch of Super Bowl XLII. In 2012, he was named safeties' coach. In his four-year tenure as safeties' coach, the Patriots defeated the Seattle Seahawks to win their fourth Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XLIX. Flores was named linebackers' coach ahead of the 2016 season. That same year, Flores and the Patriots defeated the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI after the Patriots were down 3–28, would rally to win the game 34–28 in the first Super Bowl to be decided in overtime. A day after the Patriots lost Super Bowl LII to the Philadelphia Eagles, long-time assistant Matt Patricia left to become the new head coach of the Detroit Lions, and Flores would take over the Patriots' defensive playcalling duties, but was not given the title of defensive coordinator.[4] In Flores' last game with the Patriots, Super Bowl LIII, they defeated the Los Angeles Rams 13–3 in both a rematch of Super Bowl XXXVI and the lowest-scoring Super Bowl in NFL history. It would also turn out to be the final Super Bowl win in the Brady–Belichick era and the sixth of the seven Super Bowl wins of quarterback Tom Brady's 21-year career.
Miami Dolphins
On February 4, 2019, the day after the Patriots won their 6th Super Bowl title and after 15 years of serving as a Patriots assistant, Flores was hired as 12th head coach of the Miami Dolphins, becoming the fourth Latino in NFL history to become a head coach, after Ron Rivera, Tom Fears, and Tom Flores,[5] the second former Belichick assistant to coach the team (the first being Nick Saban from 2005-2006), and the first black person to coach the team as well.[6] Flores was also interviewed by the Green Bay Packers, Denver Broncos, and Cleveland Browns for each of their vacant head coaching spots.[7] The Dolphins also considered hiring Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and team assistants Darren Rizzi or Dowell Loggains prior to Flores' hiring.[8]
2019 season
On September 8, 2019, the Dolphins lost to the Baltimore Ravens 59–10 in Flores' head coaching debut. Again in week two, the Dolphins lost 43–0 to Flores' former team, the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, leaving the Dolphins outscored by a total of 163 points as of the team's bye week in Week 5, which had included blowout losses to the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Chargers. After a two-month winless start, Flores recorded his first win as a head coach in a 26–18 home victory over the division rival New York Jets on November 3, 2019. The Jets were led by Flores' predecessor and former Dolphins head coach Adam Gase, and that game was his first visit to Miami since the Dolphins fired him in December 2018. Flores followed this by earning his second consecutive win against the Indianapolis Colts the following week, which was Miami's first road win since Week 2 of the 2018 season. Flores' first season as head coach concluded with a 27–24 upset win over his former team, the Patriots, and was also the Dolphins' first road win over the Patriots since 2008.[9] In his first season as a head coach, Flores led the Dolphins to a 5–11 record, finishing 5-4 after beginning the season 0-7, and 4th place in the AFC East.
2020 season
In his second season, Flores made the decision at the start of the 2020 season to start veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick over rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. The Dolphins went on to open the season with an 0–2 start with back-to-back losses against the division rivals New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills by the scores of 21–11 and 31–28 respectively, before winning their first game of the season against the Jacksonville Jaguars by a score of 31–13, also Miami's first win over Jacksonville since 2014. During a Week 5 game against the defending NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers, the Dolphins blew out the Niners by a score of 43–17, which was their first time since 2015 scoring more than 40 points in a game, their first blowout win since December 3, 2017, and was also their first road win over the 49ers since 2004. They would also begin a 5-game winning streak for the first time since 2016, after beginning the season 0-2 and then 1–3. On a Week 6 contest against the division rival New York Jets, a 24–0 win, the Dolphins were the favorites to win for the first time since Week 16 of the 2018 season, a 17–7 loss versus the Jaguars. The Dolphins were also favored to win for the first time under Flores' tenure as head coach. It was also the Dolphins' first shutout win since November 2, 2014. On October 20, Flores confirmed Tua would be the team's starting quarterback for Week 8, following their bye week, after allowing him to play the final seconds in the shutout win against the Jets.[10] In Week 8, Tua's first NFL start, the Dolphins defense upset the Los Angeles Rams 28–17, as the Dolphins defeated them for the 5th time since 2001. On November 8, Flores guided the Dolphins to a 34–31 win over the Arizona Cardinals, which was their first road win over the Cardinals since 1996 and they also began the season 5–3 for the first time since 2014. On November 15, the Dolphins defeated the Los Angeles Chargers 29–21 to improve on their 5–11 record from last season and to begin the season 6–3 for the first time since 2001. On December 6, after defeating the Cincinnati Bengals 19–7, the Dolphins began the season 8–4 for the first time since 2003. On December 20, 2020, the Dolphins defeated Flores' former team, the New England Patriots, by a score of 22–12, which eliminated the Patriots from the playoffs for the first time since 2008 and the Dolphins clinched their first winning season since 2016 as well as their first under Flores' tenure. On January 3, 2021, after a 56-26 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 17, the Dolphins were eliminated from playoff contention.
2021 season
Entering his third season and after veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick signed with the Washington Football Team on March 15, 2021, would make 2nd-year quarterback Tua Tagovailoa the full-time starting quarterback of the Dolphins. Despite ongoing rumors of possibly trading for Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, Flores told the media Tagovailoa is their quarterback going forward and endorsed him just days before their season opener versus Flores' former team, the New England Patriots, in which the Dolphins won 17-16. After the opening win, Flores would join legendary head coach Don Shula as the only head coaches in franchise history to beat the Patriots multiple times at Gillette Stadium. On September 19, on another divisional showdown versus the Buffalo Bills, starter Tua Tagovailoa suffered a rib injury that would cause him to miss the next 3 weeks. Miami would go on to lose that game 0-35. Flores made the decision to start Jacoby Brissett for the next 3 games, where he would go 0-3 as a starter which included a close Week 3 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders 28-31 in overtime, a 17-27 loss to Brissett's former team, the Indianapolis Colts, as well as a Week 5 blowout loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers 17-45, led by Tom Brady, whom Brissett backed up in 2016 as a member of the New England Patriots, and along with Jimmy Garoppolo, started in place of Brady during his 4-week Deflategate suspension in 2016. On October 17, 2021, Flores and his team travelled to London, England to take on the winless Jacksonville Jaguars, which marked Tua Tagovailoa's return from injury. Despite leading 13-3 in the first half, Flores' Dolphins lost 20-23 on a last-second field goal made by Jaguars kicker Matthew Wright, to snap the Jaguars' 20-game losing streak dating back to the 2020 season opener. It would mark Urban Meyer and Trevor Lawrence's first NFL wins.
Head coaching record
| Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won | Lost | Ties | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
| MIA | 2019 | 5 | 11 | 0 | .313 | 4th in AFC East | — | — | — | — |
| MIA | 2020 | 10 | 6 | 0 | .625 | 2nd in AFC East | — | — | — | — |
| MIA | 2021 | 1 | 5 | 0 | .167 | — | — | — | — | |
| Total | 16 | 22 | 0 | .421 | 0 | 0 | .000 | |||
References
- ^ a b Ian O'Connor (January 30, 2017). "The Patriots' next coaching star? His odds were incredibly long". ESPN.com.
- ^ NFL RedZone, October 18, 2020
- ^ "Dolphins' Brian Flores says he's had guns drawn on him by police". Fox News. August 28, 2020.
- ^ "Brian Flores to call Pats' defensive plays without DC title". espn.com. March 7, 2018. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
- ^ Wolfe, Cameron (February 4, 2019). "Dolphins make Patriots assistant Brian Flores their next head coach". ESPN.
- ^ Habib, Hal (January 12, 2019). "Habib: Let's discuss the Miami Dolphins, Brian Flores and race, shall we?". Palm Beach Post. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
- ^ "NFL Rumors: Brian Flores to interview with these four teams this weekend". NBC Sports Boston. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
- ^ "Dolphins interview Flores, Bieniemy for head coaching job". USA Today. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
- ^ Sullivan, Tyler. "Patriots vs. Dolphins final score: Miami pulls off stunner, sends New England down to No. 3 playoff seed". CBS Sports.
- ^ Smith, Michael David. "Tua Tagovailoa to start for Dolphins". ProFootballTalk. NBC Sports.
External links
- 1981 births
- Living people
- American people of Honduran descent
- Afro-Honduran
- People from Brownsville, Brooklyn
- Sportspeople from Brooklyn
- Players of American football from New York (state)
- American football linebackers
- Poly Prep alumni
- Boston College Eagles football players
- New England Patriots scouts
- New England Patriots coaches
- Miami Dolphins head coaches