Indianapolis Colts owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon likely isn't going to be interested in how things appear when doing a general manager search. She simply wants the team to win and will be interested in finding who she believes is the best person. Should head coach Shane Steichen be let go too, the search would be done the same way.
This is important because a potential replacement for Steichen could be Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores. Flores has an ongoing lawsuit against the NFL for racial discrimination, and that could, secretly, put off some owners from hiring him as their team's head coach.
Will Irsay-Gordon feel the same? Probably not. She wants to win games, and Flores might just be the coach to help the Colts do that.
The Vikings' Brian Flores could be a candidate to replace the Indianapolis Colts' Shane Steichen
The owner will get an up-close look in Week 7 at Indy's current head coach's offensive scheme against Flores' defensive scheme for the Vikings when the two teams play each other. Steichen was hired because he was supposed to be a brilliant offensive mind. Flores could be hired for his brilliant defensive mind.
What seems obvious before the game, though might play out differently in Week 7, is that one of Indianapolis's weaknesses on offense is going directly against one of Minnesota's defensive strengths: Pressuring quarterbacks.
Daniel Jones was sacked six times and hit 11 times against a Tennessee Titans team that was struggling entering Week 6. Tennessee was able to dial up blitzes that worked exceedingly well, and Steichen appeared unprepared for that to happen and incapable of stopping the rush schematically once the game was underway.
Brian Flores likes his Vikings to blitz a lot, and the team is extremely successful in doing so. Minnesota blitzes 65.6 percent of the time, by far the most in the league. The team with the second-highest percentage is the New York Giants at 38.0 percent.
That has partly led to the Vikings having the highest pressure percentage in the NFL at 36.7 percent. Their 17 sacks rank fifth, but the team has also played one fewer game than three teams with more sacks. The Colts have allowed 15 sacks, the 10th-most in the league.
As Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo is unlikely to come up with a game plan that will completely shut down the Vikings' offense, the game might be won or lost based on the head-to-head between Shane Steichen and Brian Flores. If Steichen succeeds, that speaks volumes about him as a glorified offensive coordinator.
More likely, Brian Flores will unleash his pass rush on Daniel Jones, and the game will be an ugly one for Indy. The positive part is that what Colts fans see from the Vikings defense in Week 7 is what they could see from the Indianapolis defense in 2027 if Flores is hired to replace Steichen.
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