Credit: Detroit Free Press-USA TODAY Sports
Once the Detroit Lions officially release Trey Flowers, here are five potential landing spots for the veteran edge rusher.
The move was certainly coming, but on Thursday the Detroit Lions reportedly informed defensive end/outside linebacker Trey Flowers they will indeed release him when the new league year starts next week.
Flower is the last remnant in Detroit of the “Patriot Way”, signed to a five-year, $90 million deal in 2019 by former general manager Bob Quinn with the certain blessing of then-head coach Matt Patricia.
After a solid first season as a Lion (51 total tackles, seven sacks, eight tackles for loss, 21 quarterback hits, 35 pressures), injuries limited Flowers to 14 games and 3.5 sacks over the last two seaasons. A cap hit north of $23 million for 2022 was not palatable for the Lions to keep him, and after apparently finding no trade takers the Lions will outright release the veteran edge rusher.
Flowers will now enter the open market, whenever it officially happens, and it’s hard to say he’ll be a top target in a lot of places. That said, there will be teams with interest before or after other free agent chips fall.
5 potential landing spots for Trey Flowers after the Detroit Lions release him
5. Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders don’t seem to need the pass rush help off the edge, with Maxx Crosby and Yannick Ngakoue leading the charge there. But they were down the way in sacks and many other deeper pass rush metrics as a team last season. Their run defense was also middle of the pack (19th in the league).
Flowers could be a nice piece to the equation for Las Vegas, allowing for flexibility with where others could line up on passing downs in particular. There’s also past ties here for the soon-to-be former Lion. Former Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels is the Raiders’ head coach, and general manager Dave Ziegler spent the last nine seasons in the New England front office. Raiders’ defensive coordinator Patrick Graham overlapped with Flowers in New England for one season, as the Patriots’ linebackers coach in 2015.