Following Disappointing Playoffs, Seahawks Confident CB Tre Flowers Will Bounce Back
After a surprisingly productive rookie campaign, the Seahawks held high expectations for cornerback Tre Flowers entering the 2019 campaign, hopeful he’d be able to take his development to the next level in year two.
Positioned across from teammate Shaquill Griffin, Seattle’s secondary featured two exciting young cornerbacks in 2018 and they believed that duo could accomplish even more during their second season paired together. Unfortunately, Flowers' season-long struggles in pass coverage were put on full display during the team’s Divisional Round playoff matchup against Green Bay, as he allowed several explosive plays to star receiver Davante Adams.
Despite his postseason woes, the 25-year old has an opportunity to redeem himself during his third season in the league and the stakes couldn’t be higher for the 6-foot-3 cornerback. Now halfway through his rookie contract, the Oklahoma product could be pushed into a reserve role if he’s outperformed by Quinton Dunbar in training camp.
While the right cornerback position should become an extremely competitive battle in coming weeks, without any preseason games, making a good impression with Seattle’s coaching staff will likely be very beneficial this summer. Luckily for Flowers, the third-year pro has already made strides in coach Pete Carroll's eyes and he believes the young corner will return to the mentality he had as a rookie.
“Tre has come back really determined. He’s got a great mentality for it, he’s gonna return to the roots of the way he performed as a rookie, where he played really aggressive and all that,” Carroll discussed. “I want to make sure that comes to light, he’s a physical kid and attacks the football really well and I want that to show up again for him.”
Once Flowers earned the starting job during his inaugural season, the former safety ran with the opportunity, finishing with the most forced fumbles (three), tied for the most fumble recoveries (two), the third-most solo tackles (55), and the fourth-most pass deflections (six) among all qualified rookie cornerbacks, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com.
Entering his third season, the Texas native must find a way to produce more consistently and become more disciplined, as seven of his nine penalties were called for pass interference last season. After producing a career-high 15 missed tackles, he’ll also need to return to form as an open field tackler, an area he wasn't expected to have issues transitioning to the NFL.
Since Dunbar arrived late to training camp due to briefly being on the commissioner's exempt list, Flowers has been controlling the starting spot opposite of Griffin during team practices and has looked particularly good so far. Needing to take advantage of this playing time, Carroll admitted the former fifth-round pick has been utilizing his two seasons of experience to help him perform effectively and explained how it’s been paying off.
“So far he’s doing really well, he’s been playing just fine, he looks like he’s been around, he looks like he’s been there, looks like an experienced guy that he is,” Carroll mentioned.
Despite the disappointing end to his sophomore season, Flowers was still able to produce career-highs in interceptions (three), pass deflections (eight), solo tackles (65), tackles for loss (two), sacks (2.0), and quarterback hits (two) through 15 starts in 2019. Considering these results, his second season in the league wasn’t a disaster as some fans have suggested and the narrative heading into 2020 would’ve probably been a lot better if he didn’t endure his playoff struggles.
Citing these metrics, Griffin believes Flowers performed much better than most experts have given him credit for and is confident about his chances to bounce back this season. After training with him over the offseason, the Pro Bowl cornerback witnessed all of the improvements his teammate made to his game and is excited to see that hard work showcased on the field in 2020.
“I feel like he was very productive last year, more than people would like to bring up. But when you leave a game, the last game of the season, you leave a bad taste in people’s mouths,” Griffin explained. “I think about the three interceptions that he had, all the tackles he had, the pass deflections that he had, he had a lot of production, people not bringing that up because of what he did in Green Bay. So he’s eager to make up for that.”
