More than three years have passed, but the memory hits him like a blitz.
It's late February in 2023. Brian Flores was hired to be the defensive coordinator on Head Coach Kevin O'Connell's staff a few weeks prior. It's cold and dark outside. Negative temps. Flo' spots someone training in the Indoor Practice Facility at Minnesota's headquarters in Eagan. He goes to chat with him.
"When you see guys in here," the 45-year-old coach said last week, "you know it's important to them."
After all, there's a lot of places they could be. Players often work out during the offseason in Arizona, Texas or Florida. Joshua Metellus planted his feet to show how serious he was about his opportunities.
"I saw that and was like, 'Well, I think he'll do what it takes to learn it and succeed,' " Flores recalled.
And that's where their journey together really started. The newly hired coach long ago formed "this thought or idea" of playing the safety — or safeties — in what has become "this Metellus-type of role."
"But I knew it would take someone with the mind to go from nickel one play to linebacker on the next
play back to safety" without getting confused, Flores said. "You have to have the right type of person."
He found his answer in "Telly" and then they went to work on applying his extraordinary skill set.
Overcoming the mold
Six years ago, the Vikings happily spent the 205th pick on a player primed for special teams two spots after adding offensive lineman Blake Brandel, on the way to a franchise-record 15 picks in one NFL Draft.
Metellus was a third-phase ace and a sub on defense until merging brain waves with Flores to split the minds of adversaries. He was precisely who Vikings scouts projected him to be: a developmental safety.
Vikings Senior Personnel Executive Jamaal Stephenson is in his 25th season with Minnesota in 2026 and he served as the Director of College Scouting back when he visited Michigan to inquire about Metellus.
It was beneficial that then-Wolverines Defensive Coordinator Don Brown ("Dr. Blitz") was Stephenson's defensive coach when he was tabbed as a Second-Team All-Ivy League DB at Brown nearly 30 years ago.
"I had open lines of communication with him when he was at Michigan, Arizona, UMass," Stephenson shared. "I just remember talking to him about Josh — and I knew he would shoot me straight — and he was very high on him in terms of his intelligence, his toughness, his communication, all those things.
"And that made me feel comfortable, because I know what kind of [person] Coach Brown is and how you had to measure up to be able to play in his secondary," Stephenson continued. "Because that was his baby. He was a defensive coordinator, but he was a defensive backs coach" in his heart of hearts.
Stephenson retold that Metellus' face lit up once the Vikings drafted him and he informed him that he played for "Donnie Brown" at Brown. Metellus exclaimed back to him, "That was my guy, that's my guy!"
Six years later, Stephenson implies Metellus was a hard prospect to get an accurate read on. Could he patrol the deepest parts of the field as a free safety? Or, was he more of an in-the-box safety? As with every prospect, scouts weighed the debate of how good has he been? And, how good can he become?
Metellus' body of work at Michigan was solid — almost 200 tackles, six turnovers forced (five interceptions), impact plays in the backfield, and more than 2,000 snaps on defense and 300 on special teams — but his athleticism was garden variety. Metellus had good jumps and a strong set on the bench press at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine, pushing 225 pounds 20 times, tied for fourth among safeties that year and topping all participating defensive backs this year (S Dillon Thieneman led with 18). Metellus' straight-line speed, however, didn't wow anyone. His 40-yard dash time of 4.55 seconds was the 10th-fastest among positional peers in Indianapolis and would have tied for the slowest this February.
"It wasn't like he was one of these top targets at the position," Stephenson said of Metellus, the 19th of 24 safeties drafted. "So as you can imagine, some of the traits weren't necessarily elite for the position."
There were some strengths with a rosy tint, however, as well as an immeasurable amount of character.
"He was a good kid when he came to us," Stephenson added. "The leadership was always there; it was just about having some success and then how he was going to use the leadership after that part. And I think he's used it for good. … He's vocal, he's got a good message, he does things the right way on and off the field, so it's one of those things that I think he's matured since Michigan into this leadership role."
Metellus gained his stripes, namely a "C" on his chest and respect across the organization, despite inherent hardships, such as being cut after his initial training camp. Out of 149 2020 Day 3 picks, the 28-year-old is one of 58 active players left (Brandel, a versatile Viking in his own right, is in the same boat).
Furthermore, the extent to which Metellus has embedded himself in the fabric of Minnesota's culture — initially under Mike Zimmer and now O'Connell — is rare. Metellus is one of just seven players picked in Rounds 4-7 in 2020 who is still rostered and has been retained by his original team for his whole career.
The other half dozen are 49ers OL Colton McKivitz, a fifth-rounder who has blossomed into a starter; Ravens DL Broderick Washington, Jr., a fifth-rounder who rotates on defense; Broncos LB Justin Strnad, a fifth-rounder who parlayed duties on special teams into a nice-sized defensive role; Patriots OL Michael Onwenu, a sixth-rounder who started every game as a rookie and 90 of 98 overall; Bills K Tyler Bass, a sixth-rounder who has converted 84.5% of his career field-goal attempts but missed 2025 with an injury; and Brandel, a sixth-rounder famous for his feats as a spot starter who's aligned at all five OL positions.
(Note: Seventh-round WR Jauan Jennings has played exclusively with San Francisco but is an unsigned free agent as of today; same with fifth-round DL Mike Danna, who has suited up for Kansas City only.)
Stephenson thinks the steep climb Metellus faced was advantageous thanks to his resolve.
"I would say it's not uncommon to find a sixth-round pick or an undrafted guy who [defies the odds] because a lot of times those are the guys who are battling uphill," Stephenson said. "So they have to have some — they don't have to — but a lot of times the ones who develop into leaders, there's a chip on their shoulder. And there's a way that they think about how they have to grind in order to make it."
Guys of that ilk, who purposefully power past the slog, are "very easy to anoint" as leaders, which is what Minnesota got in the 26th pick in the sixth round — bottomless leadership and bounding potential.
Redefining his roles
As a scout for New England in the mid-2000s, Flores was mentored by Scott Pioli.
Lionel Vital (most recently General Manager of the UFL's Houston Roughnecks) and Nick Caserio (Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Texans now) were other big resources on the Patriots staff at the time, but Flores credits Pioli with showing him the ropes from a scouting standpoint.
The background is important to be aware of because Flores is a scout by trade. Now, he is constantly blending both fortes — evaluating players and teaching them — and aims to portray the extent of what he sees on tape, and how he plans to utilize a player, in reports absorbed by the Vikings coaching staff.
Flores said Pioli ingrained in him the importance of learning what players can do, instead of obsessing over shortcomings, and reminded him to tap into scouting hunches after he transitioned into coaching.
"I remember him telling me the best coaches have a scouting eye also, and that's how they put the whole thing together. So I think that's always stayed with me," Flores elaborated. "Bringing [together] those scouting and coaching worlds has been something I've continually tried to build on and grow in."
His twofold mechanism was essential to unleash the scope of Metellus' skills.
"My approach to coaching is I don't really care where a guy comes from. I don't care about [how] they get to the team. The round you were drafted, free agent, trade. (Once) you get here, everybody gets the same opportunity on the field, performing in practice and meetings and all those things," Flores shared.
Metellus took his "shot" and has "shined all the way through," the coach added, which corroborates what he saw while watching the safety's film in limited regular-season action and exhibitions pre-2023; Flores loved Metellus' physicality and block suppression, his tackling and aggression, and his instincts.
"I don't know how I missed him in the draft," he stated, amazed.
Flores was head coach in Miami in 2020 when the Dolphins selected a safety named Brandon Jones late on Day 2, a hundred-plus picks before Metellus was drafted. A starter in Denver now, Jones has carved out a good career. He's played all over the field for the Broncos after playing a big box role under Flores.
Point being, the writing was on the wall, then, as far as what Flores aspired to do defensively.
That amplifies the present circumstances. He had no clue what — rather, who — was waiting for his inventiveness in Minnesota. The first Flores heard of Metellus, he said, was when he joined the Vikings.
Then again, Metellus was overlooked — undervalued, at the very least — by everyone until Minnesota on Day 3. His placement stems back to the months-long process of projecting, the detailed yet imperfect science that is scouting. A crash course in studying safeties can distill Metellus' draft status and his entrance into the NFL but doesn't change that his potential didn't fully emerge until Flores unearthed it.
There are four facets of playing the position that help steer scouts' evaluations; one can treat them as pillars of the position — abilities that hint at promise. They are range, tackling, ball skills and instincts.
"If you have all four, you're a high-level player. You're Harrison Smith," said Vikings Director of College Scouting Mike Sholiton, whose scouting background dates to helping the 1999 Rams win Super Bowl XXXIV. "You're playing for a long time at a high level. You're a high pick. Most players have three out of the four, two out of the four. One out of the four might even get you drafted if it's a high enough level."
Range is a player going from Point A to Point B quickly. Tackling is self-explanatory. Ball skills rest on disruption, turning the ball over or preventing it from reaching its target. Instincts are intertwined with situations. Did you leave your spot on time? Identify concepts based upon alignments? And did you do so before the ball was thrown? etc. The abilities are interconnected, too. The right instincts can compensate for average range; great ball skills can cover up tackling deficiencies; and so on and so forth.
Sholiton said "there's a little bit of forgiveness there" when traits are so strong they camouflage flaws.
Maybe, Metellus' linear speed can be knocked (game speed is different, anyway) — but not his instincts.
"Josh always had good football instincts," said Stephenson, "and they did a lot with him at Michigan because of it. He was one of these guys that was better playing close to the line of scrimmage because of his physicality. And he was a lot heavier. You know, Josh, I think he was almost 220 pounds in college."
That size bit — smaller than the typical linebacker but sturdier than many defensive backs — turned Metellus into a tweener. Paired with his instincts, he was fit to fill a mix of safety and linebacker roles.
"He did some of the things that we're doing with him currently," Stephenson said. "But, ironically, the staff that drafted him — we drafted him more as this core special teams guy who we can maybe develop into a safety. And then his role [advanced] when Brian Flores came in; he put [Josh] in the most advantageous situations, and he turned out to be this guy we've given another contract to because of it."
Leading the charge
There's another main attribute that is quintessential in Flores' system: FBI (football intelligence).
Above all else, a player — particularly a safety — in Flores' liberating scheme of disguises and blitzes has to possess acumen. He must be smart to understand the intent of play calls. Also, he must be a gifted communicator to propagate tactics that often change in nanoseconds when offenses motion or audible.
"It starts there for me," Flo' said, emphasizing that a "check defense" needs a hub of communication. "It starts with the safety position. They're going to check the whole group into a different call. The guys in the back who can see it with that wide lens, those are the only guys who can do that. So it starts there."
The leadership and communication piece is difficult to scout, though. A player can be observed making checks and hand-signaling to teammates, "but you don't really know until you get them in a room and really feel their capacity," Flores said. "How much can they handle? How do they communicate? Do they understand the game and understand everyone else's roles as [in depth] as they understand their own?"
Metellus proved right away that he could compartmentalize whatever genius stroke Flores sent his way.
"It was one of those situations where he handled a lot of the information with so much ease that it was like, 'How can we unlock the skills of other guys by putting whatever information on Josh and having him deliver that message to the other players?'" Flores remembered the lofty goals for Metellus crystallizing.
His smarts are his wild card, the component of his makeup that offsets whatever inadequacies he may have in regard to the "four pillars." It's definitely not easy to scout or as straight-forward of a projection since it doesn't pop on the screen like a violent hit over the middle of the field or a dynamic sequence that leads to a takeaway, and it's not always discernible in cut-ups; the six seconds of a play don't usually capture someone's personality beyond their inclination for physicality. Nevertheless, it's a hugely important layer in the evaluation of a player, and never lacked in Telly's case, actually existing in spades.
"It's the hardest thing to identify," Sholiton said, but with 4-4, "you see it; we're watching it play out."
Stephenson worked through the pillars outlined by Sholiton and shared that, beyond instincts and tackling, Metellus' physicality was apparent, granted he was surer in tighter quarters than space. Also, Metellus impressed with his vocalness — his proficiency and willingness to transmit defensive checks.
These types of above-the-neck qualities are usually discovered through deep dives conducted by scouts.
For instance, rather than film exposure, trusted sources and face-to-face interactions provide the clearest lenses to identify if a player has "glue guy" potential and can upgrade a team beyond the field.
Depending on the amount of access that scouts receive on college visits, data, including anecdotes are attainable via a plethora of channels — academic counselors, position coaches, support staffers, athletic trainers, strength coaches, nutritionists, graduate assistants. They are people "in the neighborhood" of the player, Sholiton said, and "oftentimes there's a strong signal that comes out" of those conversations.
The trickiness to it is calibrating the information and estimating how authenticity may cultivate pro success; the truth is that the millions of details matter, but they must be counted with a grain of salt.
Ideally, by the end of the process Vikings scouts are armed with an amalgamation of knowledge about football and character attributes so they're able to "present the player in his best, most favorable light," Sholiton said. "Our job isn't to go in there (college programs) and get them to say things that are negative about the player. It's to try to get [sources] to present an accurate portrayal of the player and be able to be trustworthy, first, by not weaponizing that information" and shredding a prospect's portfolio.
Sholiton shared a comment specific to Michigan sources that's helped categorize leadership skills while simultaneously verifying the "rare air" of one of Minnesota's captains: "He's on the Josh Metellus level."
"When they're talking about somebody that they really like and feel can upgrade your team in the building, in the community — a lot of times they're using, 'He's a future Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year. He's [in the mold of] an AFCA Good Works Team [honoree]. … Even when he's not playing, he's traveling with the team. He's injured, but he's using one of our 60 travel spots because he has this type of impact,' " Sholiton commented. "Those are nice signals that we can use to [vet a prospect]. The film is what it is; we're never going to take a player that can't play to the level of somebody that can. But if [someone's impact as a leader] can be a minimum or add value in other places, that's something that we'll definitely covet — and I think all teams covet. Championship teams are built with guys like that."
Avid, adaptable learners. Leaders who preach the right message. Draft diamonds just like Metellus.
Metellus' sagacity "forced me and our staff to get more creative in finding ways to unlock his skill set," Flores noted, recalling his breakout 2023 season. "So I would say I've grown — not that this is about me — but we as a staff have had to grow and get a little bit more creative as far as finding ways to keep him on the field against different looks, different movements, and some situations where if he played a little bit more traditionally, you may have to take him off because those things may not play to his strengths.
"He's been fantastic," Flores added. "Just his ability to learn multiple roles — nickel safety, strong safety, free safety, linebacker — he's allowed us to have as much flexibility defensively as we can possibly have.
"He's been instrumental as far as getting the whole group on this high football IQ page so that we can be as multiple as we want to be, or as we can possibly be, and try to give the offenses, which are very good, as many problems as we possibly can," Flores continued. "I would say Telly kind of leads the charge from that standpoint. And where there's some groups that are competing to prove who's the fastest, who's the most physical, we always want to do that, too. But there's a competition with our group as far as football IQ and how much we can handle, how much they can handle on their own without me calling it. I try to give them ownership to do that, (and) he's certainly at the top and forefront leading the charge."
Final piece of the puzzle
Evaluation checkpoints such as the Senior Bowl and the NFL Scouting Combine were especially key for Metellus because they allowed him to present his "magnetic personality" to scouts, as well as coaches.
"That's a big part of how we got Josh, to be honest with you," Stephenson said. "Once our coaches got involved — they met him at the combine; they interviewed him and thought he was an underrated guy."
The scene in Indianapolis accommodates athletic tests, medical exams and industry networking, but it's also the starting place for the coaching staff to introduce schemes and listen to prospects explain their college's and how they dealt with their responsibilities. Metellus really separated himself in that setting.
"When you go into a school, you're basically interviewing the people they put in front of you — [the people] that they want to represent all their players and give you [a sense] of who that player is," Stephenson explained. "So you actually get to meet with these guys in the postseason … and that was one of the things that we were like, you know, if we have a late pick and he's still there, we want to make sure we secure his services and not have to fight for him as a free agent because there's something we like that we don't want to lose out on. And I think with Josh, it was meeting him, the magnetic personality. We thought he had a high-level capability of learning our scheme and being able to contribute as a special teamer. It's all a piece of the puzzle. And that was the final piece — the combine."
Metellus had more hurdles to clear once the Vikings tabbed him, including catching up to the speed of the game, which is common for every rookie — even ones picked on the draft's opening night. But none were too tall due to his experiences at a blue-blood football program modeled after an NFL organization.
"There's always going to be an adjustment period to how an NFL building is run compared to a college building," Stephenson said, reminding Metellus was in a pro-style environment at Michigan under Chargers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh. "Thankfully, Josh had some pro understanding of how things are going to be run in the building. So having that in your back pocket from college is a feather in your cap.
"I think Josh has always had all the core tenets. It's just that he's being used in a way that highlights the things that he does really well," Stephenson reflected on his journey. "And it's a credit to him, being a young guy and doing what he did as a special teamer to actually be able to stay on a roster, and then being able to have this role crafted for him because we have that much belief in his ability. He's just enhanced everything that he had, in my opinion. And because of who he is as a person and the things that he showed us as a youngster, he's being put into this role that really highlights what he does well."
That sentiment returns us to Flores, the practitioner of potential realized, if you will. He is optimizing Metellus' physical and mental skills through a Rolodex of roles that keeps his alignment a mystery and leverages his strengths. Metellus' usage at the line of scrimmage is arguably the most telling evidence.
It accentuates the abilities Flores took note of quickly, namely Metellus' play style and aptitude.
In 2023, Next Gen Stats tallied 140 defenders with a minimum of 100 pass rushes. The highest QB pressure rate belonged to the Vikings position-flex captain. Metellus produced 30 pressures on 113 opps or 26.5 percent. Five other players ended above 20%: OLB Micah Parsons (21.4), LB Kaden Elliss (21.5), LB Ernest Jones IV and LB Frankie Luvu (both 22.0), and LB Patrick Queen (26.0). Not by happenstance, the second-most pass rushes by a DB that year was 90 from "The Hitman," whose QBP rate was 16.7%.
Metellus dipped underneath the century threshold in '24 but not by much, rushing the passer 90 times and banking 21 pressures (23.3%). Among 154 players with that many chases after the quarterback, his rate ranked third behind future Hall of Fame linebackers Lavonte David (24.1) and Bobby Wagner (23.5). And, among the eight DBs with 50-plus opps, Metellus was No. 2 to unicorn safety Derwin James (30.4).
Last season contrasted Metellus' first two as a starter in terms of pass-rush frequency, but he still delivered significant returns in a rarer rushing role. As a result of a playing-time surge at free safety — Metellus managed 350 snaps there in 2025 per Pro Football Focus, crushing his old career high of 150 in 2022 (as a reserve) — and him missing three games at the end of the year due to injury, Metellus accrued 28 pass rushes. His 28.6 QBP rate, however, signaled a personal best and tied Pro Bowl safety Antoine Winfield, Jr., for the fifth-highest clip by someone in the secondary with at least 25 pass rushes.
Moving Metellus forward, into attack mode, is one way Flores has unlocked his impact. And Metellus' grasp of so many positions is one thing that's helped Flo' lean into his disposition and flummox offenses.
"I'm constantly telling Josh, 'Tell yourself who you are. I'm a safety right now. I'm a nickel right now. I'm a 'backer right now. Remind yourself — who am I?' " Flores said, imparting his vision for Telly and the unit.
"Really, if you want to do multiple things, you have to have multiple people with that type of mind to get in and out of different looks, different sets, different disguises, because a disguise for a 'backer is different from a disguise for a safety, which is different from a disguise for a nickel. So putting all that together, you've got to have a number of guys who can think on that level," he continued fleshing out his blueprints. "And once we were able to do that with Telly, he's been instrumental in bringing other guys along and pushing the envelope as far as if we can all get on the same page — 'If I can do it, and Harrison Smith can do it, and Murph' (Byron Murphy, Jr.) can do it, and Theo [Jackson] can do it, and Cam Bynum can do it when he was here, and then Cash' (Blake Cashman) can do it,' then now we've got something."
