Tua Tagovailoa calls out Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator for being a "terrible person"

Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores is in the headlines this week, and it isn’t for his defense’s performance against the Cleveland Browns in their second preseason game. Flores, the former Miami Dolphins head coach, was called out by his former quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, when he was interviewed on the Dan Le Batard Show on Monday.

Flores was the Dolphins' head coach from 2019-2021 and was part of the regime that drafted Tagovailoa fifth overall in the 2020 NFL Draft . Two seasons later, Flores was fired after the team went 10-6 and 9-8 in back-to-back seasons but missed the playoffs by one game.

After the Dolphins let go of the current Vikings coordinator, rumors started circulating that his relationship with the franchise quarterback was part of why he was let go. Flores went back and forth, starting and benching Tagovailoa for veterans Ryan Fitzpatrick and Jacoby Brissett during his tenure with the Dolphins, which perhaps stunted the development of the former Alabama quarterback. The Dolphins would bring in San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel to coach the team and saw instant success in the offense, with Tagovailoa flourishing in McDaniel’s spread-style offense.

Until this point, Tagovailoa had not made any public comments that insinuated he and Flores had a bad relationship, but on Monday morning, all that changed. When Tagovailoa was asked about what it was like working for Brian Flores, the quarterback did not hold back his negative feelings about his former head coach any longer.

“To put it in simplest terms, if you woke up every morning and I told you, you suck at what you did, that you don't belong doing what you do, that you shouldn't be here, that this guy should be here, that you haven't earned this right, and then you have somebody else come in and tell you, 'Dude, you are the best fit for this. How would it make you feel listening to one or the other, you see what I'm saying?” Tagovailoa said in the interview when asked about the contrasting styles in coaching between his former head coach and current coach McDaniel.

“You could be the president of the United States, you have a terrible person telling you things that you don't want to hear or probably shouldn't be hearing, you're going to start believing that about yourself.” the fifth-year quarterback would add.

Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell was asked about comments about his coordinator during his media time on Monday afternoon. O’Connell said, “I don’t particularly have a comment on something that took place with another team, but I can just tell you the players Flo works with; he has great relationships here. I know you guys have heard a lot of them talk about how much they enjoy playing for him and how much I enjoy working with him every day.”

Flores has been a revelation for the Vikings' defense, turning it around from a bottom-five unit in 2022 under Ed Donatell into a middle-of-the-league defense in points allowed per game (13th), yards per game allowed (16th), and takeaways per game (19th).

Some experts believed Flores would be in line for a head-coaching job this past off-season, but he returned to Minnesota for a second year.

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