The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Flowers making strong statement
Lineman’s production, quiet leadership propel improved defense.
Like most Patriots players, Trey Flowers generally stays under the radar.
Flowers has made his loudest impact on the field and emerged as a key part of the defense during
the runs to the Super Bowl in the past two seasons.
Flowers, 24, has become one of the leaders on a defense that has found some stability after struggling to stop teams early in the season. He has helped fill the void created by Dont’a Hightower’s season-ending shoulder injury.
Flowers missed all but one game during his rookie season in 2015 before being placed on injured reserve because of knee and shoulder issues.
He returned in 2016 and appeared in all 16 regular-season games, leading the team with seven sacks. His production continued in the playoffs, where he added 2½ sacks.
He has been equally impressive this season.
The defensive end again led the team with 6½ sacks, despite missing back-to-back games in December with a rib injury. But he had 12 tackles and a half-sack over his final three games. It was his best three-game stretch of the regular season.
He’s added another sack and eight tackles since the start of
the postseason. Flowers credits the defense’s preparation for his opportunities. “I think a lot of guys can make plays at any given time,” Flow
ers said. “You’ve got a lot of playmakers in this locker room, so it’s just one of those things where you’ve got to deal with all of us. Once everybody prepares well
and gets ready for the game and things like that, any given down somebody can make a play.”
He said getting back to the Super Bowl is proof of how far the defense has progressed since it ranked at the bottom of the NFL in total defense for nine consecutive weeks during the regular season.
“It’s big. Just the fashion of how we got to (the Super Bowl),” Flowers said.
Defensive captain Devin McCourty said teammates recognize the time Flowers has put in over the past two seasons. “If you guys talk to Trey, you can
see he doesn’t talk a lot. He’s not a man of many words,” McCourty said. “I think that the thing I see from him is now when he feels like it’s time to say something and he wants to say something, it usually makes a big impact on the team because guys know his work ethic.”
Coach Bill Belichick said Flowers is displaying the same conditioning and ability to finish games now they saw when they first scouted him at Arkansas.
“He plays hard, pursues the ball well, played a lot of plays at Arkansas (and) wasn’t substituted for a lot. He was in there
and played a lot of important plays, kind of as you would expect him to be given the caliber of his play,” Belichick said. “He can do
alot of different things for us and has done that. And it’s been very valuable.”