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By MAX DEMARA 23 hours ago (March 19, 2019)
Trey Flowers is coming to the Detroit Lions after some sterling work with the New England Patriots, and the fact that Flowers has played within the same system and had success could mean great things for his tenure in Detroit. Flowers won't have to worry about transitioning to a new scheme, and that could be huge as it relates to getting the best play the team can out of Flowers.
Recently, NFL
analyst Brian Baldinger showed off some clips of Flowers at work with the
Patriots, and clearly, his skills he showed off in New England will be a great
fit for Detroit, too.
"He can line up
anywhere in your defense, anywhere," Baldinger says in the Twitter clip while showing off what
Flowers can do. "He plays with great pad level and knows how to get off
the blocks. He's not big, he's 6-2, but he's got long arms. In the run game, he can play inside,
he can play outside. That's what Patricia loves."
The scheme fit is very key for Flowers in Detroit, and it's
something he will know well given Patricia's influence on the defense.
Flowers, 25, was drafted by the Patriots in the fourth round of
the 2015 NFL Draft out of Arkansas. He essentially redshirted his rookie
season, but has quickly evolved into one of the more impactful pass rushers for
the Patriots. With Flowers, the Patriots should be able to stabilize that pass
rush as the defensive end was able to total 6.5 sacks, 28 quarterback hits and
24 pressures last season. He's
also led the team in sacks both in 2016 and 2017, while proving he can also
come up in the clutch as evidence of his two and a half sacks in Super Bowl LI
against the Falcons.
Flowers
was added this week on a massive five year contract, and is already feeling at
home in Detroit.
"It's a pretty nice city from what I've heard," Flowers
says in a video to DetroitLions.com reporter
Tori Petry with a smile. "Actually, I've been here a few times. My
grandmother used to live up here, so I came to visit her a few times. My mom's
got a lot of family here, so I'm excited to really be a resident here and see
what it's about."
Specifically, it's clear that Flowers has a ton of respect for
Matt Patricia not just as a coach but as a man. As he said, there is so much
more than meets the eye about the Lions' boss, which is part of why he signed.
"He's a player's coach. He's a coach that's going to get a
lot out of you. He's going to get the highest potential. He demands high
standards of excellence," Flowers said. "Being in that building with
him with the Patriots, just seeing how week in and week out he comes into the
meeting rooms and just understanding that, you might have had a good play, but
he needs you to have a great play. Then he'll talk to you about your personal
life, get around to asking things about your family. He's an all around good
guy and great coach."
Flowers makes a ton of sense for Detroit as a scheme fit and
could take some of the pressure off of the Lions drafting a player in round one
at the position no matter where they pick. He also has age and time on his
side, and will be a quick study to plug into the Detroit defense.
Obviously, the Lions have some major building to do along their
defensive line in the coming seasons in the draft and free agency, and one
could expect them to target those spots most in the coming year when it comes
to upgrades. But even without those future players and their arrivals, the
Lions have been pretty good already, especially against running quarterbacks,
which should be downright scary for the opposition. As the Lions have figured
out how to stop the run consistently, the whole group has gotten better.
Adding Flowers could be an ideal fit considering what he can do
well.
