What I do think Matt LaFleur needs quickly figure out is how he handles having a lame duck on staff internally. We all see it at this point, and I don’t think it’s worth harping on it. The fact is that not moving on from Barry, and indeed hiring Barry in the first place, has been a colossal mistake. If ever you were going to luck into an average or better defensive season, this should have been the time. Moreover, the Packers have faced Justin Fields, Desmond Ridder, a combo of Derek Carr and Jameis Winston, Jimmy Garoppolo, Brett Rypien, Kenny Pickett, Tommy DeVito, and Baker Mayfield. There are, of course, the usual excuses for Barry on the injury front, but such is life in the NFL, and for everything that he’s missing, he’s still had the services of Rashan Gary, Preston Smith, Kenny Clark, and a group of talented young players like Lukas Van Ness, Karl Brooks, and Carrington Valentine.

Barry’s efforts this season have landed Green Bay at 29 th in DVOA, ahead of only Denver, Washington, and Arizona.

Unlike the Vikings, they did not improve to fifth overall. The Green Bay Packers finished last season 25 th in DVOA, as per usual, just a hair behind the Vikings, and stuck with their retread defensive coordinator Joe Barry. The point is that, all of the preceding notwithstanding, the man can coach defense, and with Flores at the helm, the Vikings have ascended to fifth overall in defensive DVOA, sandwiched between the 49ers and Cowboys. It’s messy, and not the point of this post. Flores is also embroiled in litigation against the league and several franchises for various discrimination and employment causes of action. Flores claims Dolphins’ owner Stephen Ross attempted to bribe him into tanking and that, after he refused, he was fired in retaliation. Flores came up with the Patriots in various roles before ascending to head coach of the Dolphins.

The Vikings hired Brian Flores as Donatell’s replacement. It’s entirely possible that Donatell was always intended as a stop-gap in Kevin O’Connell’s regime, but it’s still unusual to see the DC for a 13-4 team get the axe. The team understood that it had allowed the fifth most points in the league, and so they parted ways with Ed Donatell, their defensive coordinator, after just one season.

They went 13-4, but they’re an analytically astute front office. Last season, the Minnesota Vikings finished 24 th in defensive DVOA, with an aging roster.

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