Don’t say ‘defensive-minded’

Jones, Kyle Van Noy, Shaq Lawson, Emmanuel Ogbah and Elandon Roberts to upgrade the unit in free agency last offseason.

The money spent adding those defensive starters clearly paid off because the Dolphins rank second in scoring defense, allowing 18.8 points per game; first in third-down efficiency on defense, getting teams off the field on that critical down 33.1% of the time; and first in turnovers created (25).

Miami has a top-three defense this season, but Flores clearly doesn’t want the credit for that success, especially since he doesn’t call plays every down.

Defensive coordinator Josh Boyer, who worked his way up the Patriots ranks working under Flores in New England, deserves that recognition.

Flores wants to world to know he’s a football coach, the team’s leader, the man who manages every unit of his team and creates the franchise’s culture.

That’s a stark contrast to his predecessor Adam Gase, an “offensive-minded coach” who takes a handsoff approach to his defense and special teams units.

During games, Gase can often be found sitting on the bench dissecting plays, film and printouts for several minutes while his Jets defense is on the field. He did the same thing when he was with the Dolphins.

That’s not Flores — not even close.

In fact, unlike most head coaches, Flores actually has a level of experience working in every aspect of a football team’s coaching staff and even has some experience on the operational side.

He’s served as former NFL executive Scott Pioli’s apprentice in his first NFL job with New England, and then became a scout, which is a role he held for two seasons before feeling he could make more of an impact on the coaching side.

“I started wanting to be in personnel and then I just felt I could have a little bit more impact on the game, so that was the reason behind trying to get into coaching,” Flores said. “I felt like I could build relationships with players and it’s hard to do that on the personnel side. You just don’t have as much interaction with them, so I just wanted to make more of an impact.”

His first coaching assignment in New England was as an offensive assistant, where he worked with former Texans head coach Bill O’Brien, helping with New England’s receivers and quarterbacks.

Flores then spent the 2010 season coaching the Patriots’ special teams unit before becoming a defensive assistant in 2011.

Defense is where his coaching career took off as he spent eight years working his way up to the hierarchy to become that’s unit’s play-caller before the Dolphins made him this franchise’s 13th head coach.

So even though Flores spent eight seasons on that side of the ball, he needs the world to know he’s filled every role there is in an organization — from working in the front office and scouting department, to the offensive side and special teams unit — so don’t attempt to put him in a box.

He’s still got plenty to prove and hopes to have an influence on all aspects of his team.

“I’m probably never going to feel established,” Flores said. “Just got to keep working, keep improving, keep trying to develop. That’s me personally and hopefully our team is that same way.”

Brian Flores objects to being considered solely a defensive-minded coach.