| The Detroit News
The Detroit Lions didn’t announce what happened with Trey Flowers when they placed him on injured reserve two months ago, but following the season finale the defensive end revealed he fractured his forearm against the Colts on Nov. 1.
Flowers suffered the hairline fracture during a pass-rush attempt. His recovery hasn’t required surgery, and he doesn’t expect to need any this offseason, with a target of being full-go for the start of the offseason program.
There had been hope that Flowers would be able to return at the end of this season, but it ultimately proved too risky.
“Obviously, I was trying hard, preparing myself, preparing my body,” Flowers said. “I wanted to get out there with the guys, you know? We, collectively, the doctors, the staff and things like that just thought it wasn’t the best option for me to go out there at this point in time.
“I’m still healing, and I knew that when I had the injury that I was gonna still be in the healing process late in the season,” Flowers said. “But if it was an opportunity where I could play without pain, it would have had a different conversation. But since I wasn’t able to do that, they just thought it was best for me not to play.”
Flowers, in his second season with the Lions, appeared in seven games, recording 22 tackles, two sacks and two forced fumbles.
“Motivation, obviously, come back next year better, stronger, faster, healthier and be able to finish the season to be able to help my team out,” he said.
The question is how different will the pieces look like in 2021. The Lions just finished a season where they allowed the most yards and points in franchise history and will be bringing in a general manager and coach who should be placing a priority on repairing the broken unit.
All he knows is words won’t solve the issue.
“The thing about it is, it’s easy to talk about it, and now it’s really not much more talking we can do.,” Flowers said. “We have to show this city, we have to show this organization, us as players have to show up. We can say, ‘Oh, we was this close, we was that close, we could have been,’ but at this point — and I know a lot of people in this city and this whole state of Michigan is tired of just hearing people talk and people predicting and expecting, and all throughout the offseason. Now we just got to show. And so that’s I think that’s my mindset. We got to prove it. We got to make it happen.”
Additionally, the team’s best defensive player from 2020, edge rusher Romeo Okwara, is set to be an unrestricted free agent. Flowers, who netted a five-year, $90 million contract from the Lions as a free agent two years earlier, raved about Okwara’s growth this past year.
“Romeo is a guy who, man, works hard,” Flowers said. “He’s already got the athletic natural talent, and it’s a testament to what he did this year. Probably y’all didn’t see much of it, as far as after practice things he’s done. He’s a hard worker, he’s focused. I think the difference I saw this year was his keen focus on his craft, and how we kind of able was able to hone that natural athletic ability into precision, eliminating false steps, and to making him this much quicker at it.”
Flowers is hopeful the two will get a chance to work together next season.
“I definitely feel as though both of us being out there to, you know, do what we do obviously, that has me excited,” Flowers said. “Like I said, that was a lot of talking. Now we got to do. So I know he’s going to work hard, he’s going to be focused, I’m going to work hard and be focused. We got to do it.”
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers