Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores had a front row seat for Sam Darnold’s breakout season in 2024, but he’ll be on the opposite sideline from the quarterback this Sunday.
Darnold parleyed a strong season with the Vikings into a contract with the Seahawks this offseason and he’s kept things rolling during an 8-3 start to this season. Flores said on Tuesday that Darnold has “grown tremendously” since the start of last season while adding that he plans to put as much pressure on the quarterback as possible.
Darnold wilted in the face of intense pressure in the last two weeks of last season and a bad day against the Rams in Week 11 suggests he hasn’t come up with a foolproof solution yet. Flores said “you try it out and see if that still bothers him” when discussing his plan for Sunday.
“He did a lot of great things when he was here, and clearly those things are continuing to show up for him out there in Seattle,” Flores said, via Andrew Krammer of the Minneapolis Star Tribune . “We had a great rapport, friendship. I’m happy for him, but we’ll blitz him this week.”
Darnold will have to get a handle on that approach if the Seahawks are going to make a deeper run than the Vikings did last season and the matchup with Flores will let the league know if he’s figuring things out.
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