NFL player salaries are well-documented, to the point where websites like Spotrac and OverTheCap have specific details on how much each athlete gets paid by each team. NFL coaching and coordinator salaries are entirely different, but once in a while, some aspects leak. That may have just happened with the Minnesota Vikings.
While it’s not known who the NFL’s highest-paid offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator is, a recent report from ESPN’s Kevin Seifert revealed that Brian Flores now makes over $6 million per season. Flores’s contract expired after the 2025 season.
That gave him a chance to shop around, and he even interviewed for the defensive coordinator vacancy in Washington. The Baltimore Ravens interviewed Flores for their head coaching vacancy, and the Pittsburgh Steelers interviewed Flores twice for theirs.
Those interviews, along with a strong résumé, helped create leverage for Flores when it came time to negotiate a new contract with the Vikings. He may even be the highest-paid defensive coordinator in the NFL.
After Flores’s salary became public, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio gathered some numbers of previous coordinator hires. Florio came away with the belief that Flores may now be the NFL’s highest-paid coordinator.
“Because coaching pay lacks the transparency of player pay, it’s impossible to know with certainty how much anyone makes. It was reported that Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly received $6 million per year. Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio makes $4.5 million annually. With Kelly now fired, those numbers would make Flores the highest-paid coordinator in the league.”
PFT’s Mike Florio
Each year, the salary ceiling gets pushed higher and higher, so it would make sense that Florio, a one-time NFL head coach who’s once again generating interviews, would command a high salary. Plus, he just hit the open market, which is when players typically become the highest-paid at their respective positions. In other words, Flores may very well be the NFL’s highest-paid defensive coordinator.
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