Approaching Free Agency, Tre Flowers Ready For Intense Cornerback Competition
RENTON, WA - Coming out of their offseason program with report day nearly a month away, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll expects a far more competitive training camp across the board than last season.
Last year, like every other NFL team, Seattle didn't have OTAs or minicamps during the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This prevented incoming rookies and other young players from receiving invaluable reps and upon arrival to camp, Carroll felt he wasn't able to provide the opportunities for every player to vie for snaps that he normally would, and the lack of preseason games exacerbated the issue.
As vaccination rates continued to increase and the health crisis steadily improved, teams were able to return to the field this spring. As the league trends towards more normalcy, one of Carroll's main focuses has been re-establishing his "always compete" philosophy in practice, allowing starters to be pushed and the coaching staff to conduct more thorough evaluations on each and every player.
With all 90 players expected to have a fairer shake this time around, the Seahawks will open camp with several jobs up for grabs. In particular, Carroll is especially intrigued by the looming positional battle at cornerback, where the team will be breaking in two new starters after losing Shaquill Griffin and Quinton Dunbar in free agency.
"The cornerback position is gonna be really competitive and we've got a good structure of guys," Carroll said after Seattle's final minicamp practice last week. "We've got different styled guys who can play. We've got some long guys, some big guys, we've got some quickness, we've got a whole mixture of guys that can play. The competition will be wide open, it's going to take us all of camp to figure it out."
Shortly after Griffin agreed to terms with the Jaguars, the Seahawks promptly signed former 49ers starter Ahkello Witherspoon. Then a few weeks later, veteran Pierre Desir also signed a one-year deal and the team eventually used a fourth-round pick on Oklahoma standout Tre Brown, replenishing the depth chart with a blend of experience, youth, and differing skill sets.
All three of those players, along with fourth-year defender D.J. Reed, will be in the mix for playing time and a potential starting spot when camp opens in late July. But as Carroll pointed out last week, it would be a mistake to count out returning veteran Tre Flowers as he enters the final year of his rookie contract.
"Tre's ready. He's ready to go," Carroll stated. "He knows what's at stake, he knows the guys are coming after his job and he's going for it to protect it and own it. Nothing but positive stuff."
When the 6-foot-3 Flowers first joined Seattle as a fifth-round pick in 2018, the safety-turned cornerback out of Oklahoma State emerged as one of the team's biggest surprises. Viewed my many as a long-term project, he opened the season as a starter across from Griffin and while he encountered plenty of bumps in the road as a rookie, he started 15 games and produced 67 tackles and three forced fumbles.
Expected to take a big jump in his second season, Flowers endured a roller coaster campaign in 2019, struggling at the beginning of the year before turning things around in October. Showing substantial improvements with his ball skills, he picked off a trio of passes and recorded eight passes defensed while lowering his passer rating in coverage by more than 40 points. There were signs that the young defender was coming of age at his new position.
Unfortunately, Flowers' play regressed towards the end of the regular season and he was exposed during the playoffs. He drew two unnecessary defensive pass interference penalties against the Eagles in the wild card round and then the following week, Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams roasted him for two long touchdown completions as the Packers ended the Seahawks season at Lambeau Field.
With those two poor performances fresh in the minds of Carroll and general manager John Schneider, Seattle dealt a fifth-round pick to Washington for Dunbar in March 2020, believing they had landed an upgrade. Sure enough, after starting 30 games in his first two seasons, Flowers lost his job coming out of camp, with Griffin and Dunbar locked in as the starters in Week 1. Later in the season, Carroll admitted the young cornerback didn't rise to the challenge quite as he hoped.
But Dunbar's injury history came back to bite him again, opening the door for Flowers to return to the starting lineup in Week 3. As he did the previous season, he started sluggishly, allowing a long touchdown pass to Cowboys receiver Michael Gallup and giving up multiple receptions in coverage against the Dolphins the ensuing week.
When adding in his limited reps from the first two games of the season, Flowers had allowed a startling 121.7 passer rating to opposing quarterbacks in the first four games. Logging 174 defensive snaps in that span, he yielded 23 receptions on 28 targets for 290 yards and nearly 13 yards per completion.
As he has done throughout his career to this point, however, Flowers bounced back with several stellar outings replacing the ailing duo of Griffin and Dunbar. Displaying improved technique and playing with greater confidence over the next four weeks, he lowered his passer rating nearly 20 points overall, the completion rate against him plummeted almost 10 percent, and he allowed just 32.5 receiving yards per game over the next four weeks.
A hamstring injury eventually landed Flowers on injured reserve in Week 12 and by the time he returned late in the season, Reed had seized the starting job on the right side and Griffin was back in action across from him. From Week 12 on, he didn't play another defensive snap and was relegated to special teams while appearing in just two games, casting doubt about his future.
The decision to sign Witherspoon, who the Seahawks held out in high regard coming out of Colorado in 2017, gives the team another cornerback with similar size and length who may offer more upside than Flowers. Given Reed's emergence last year and the choice to draft Brown, the team also appears to be in the midst of a philosophical shift in regard to the style of corners they will employ on the outside, which puts him in a more perilous situation.
As he approaches free agency in 2022, however, Flowers very much remains a viable contender to return to the starting lineup and could still play his way into a new contract. When he's performed at his best, he's flashed as a capable NFL starter and though Griffin was the one who earned a Pro Bowl nod in 2019, an argument can be made Flowers outplayed him for a significant chunk of the season.
The problem has continued to be lack of consistency, particularly in coverage, which has prevented Flowers from fully realizing his potential. In the player's defense, such up-and-down play should have been expected with him changing positions and being a raw day three draft choice. In many ways, he's eclipsed expectations in his first three seasons even considering the lengthy stretches where he has struggled mightily.
But now 26 years old and entering his fourth season with close to 40 starts on his resume, Flowers can't use his positional change or lack of experience as excuses anymore. If he's ever going to emerge as long-term option for the Seahawks, with several talented players aiming to take his job and roster spot, he will have to prove it out on the field in July and August.
