Flowers’ agent hire may bring resolution to offseason standoff
Ereck Flowers was gone but not forgotten by the Giants, and perhaps this most recent development will knock some sense into the missing offensive lineman and prompt him to finally get to work.
Flowers did not have an agent in his first three NFL seasons — his father, Everald, was listed as his representation. That situation changed Tuesday when Drew Rosenhaus announced Flowers is now one of his clients. Rosenhaus has one of the largest player rosters in the league and has had many dealings with the Giants over the years.
It is in Flowers’ best interest to end his boycott of the voluntary workouts, and hiring Rosenhaus could be a harbinger of Flowers’ arrival at the team facility in East Rutherford, N.J.
Or else, hiring Rosenhaus means he will try to force the Giants to trade Flowers. Good luck with that. The Giants got a few calls regarding Flowers during the draft but, as they suspected, no one was offering much of anything for him.
“Really the only comment is I have a good relationship with the organization, and I will be speaking with them soon about Ereck,’’ Rosenhaus told The Post in an email.
The Giants are viewing this as a positive step, if only because now there is someone to speak with regarding Flowers, who is not exactly a master in the art of communication.
Flowers is on the books for $2.39 million this season and counts $4.57 million on the salary cap. Before the 2018 season, the Giants must decide if they will pick up the fifthyear option on Flowers, which is worth $12.5 million for the 2019 season. There is no conceivable way the Giants will do that.
Flowers, who turned 24 last week, was ousted from the starting left tackle job he held — shakily — his first three years when Nate Solder was signed away from the Patriots in a deal worth $62 million. Flowers was informed he was moving to the right side of the offensive line and would compete for the starting right tackle spot — he would not be handed anything.
His response was to hunker down in Florida and work out on his own, prompting an irritated general manager Dave Gettleman to say, “He’s in Miami and we’re here. He decided not
to come. He’s an adult and he has the ability to make decisions on his own.’’
Rosenhaus will now be helping Flowers make those decisions. Getting him back in the Giants’ building would be the first step toward remaking his career at right tackle. There is a new playbook to learn, a new offensive line coach (Hal Hunter) to get to know, a new head coach (Pat Shurmur) to feel out and a new offensive coordinator (Mike Shula) to please.
The Giants have been at it since their program opened up April 9. It is all voluntary and he cannot be fined for his absence, but the Giants are issuing mental demerits, and they are taking a dim view of Flowers’ commitment, or lack thereof.
“Football’s what we do, and we have the ability to practice together and be together,’’ Shurmur said. “It’s almost to the point where, you can go away and get yourself fit and ready for the season and trained up, but there’s an element of doing it together where ... I think when you train next to somebody, you train with people then you naturally challenge one another and you help make each other better. Because this is the ultimate team sport, as many times as the team can be together it only helps. It just does. There’s that chemistry that gets built when you’re working and training together. Sometimes you can’t quantify it, it just plays out in the end.’’