Tre Flowers, with his Seahawks job in severe jeopardy: ‘It’s time for me to believe in me’
Better believe Tre Flowers knows he’s fighting for his job.
Better believe he was stung when Quinton Dunbar took over his full-time, starting right-cornerback role for the first time the other day while he was out with a slightly sprained ankle.
Flowers knows he better believe in himself.
“I mean, they trusted me for two years,” the Seahawks’ starter since the beginning of his career in 2018 said Tuesday. “As a rookie they trusted me to play. And as a second-year guy they trusted me to play.
“It’s time for me to believe in me like other people believe in me.”
Flowers is up against it this week. It’s Seattle’s final week of training camp before preparations begin in earnest for the opening game Sept. 13 at Atlanta.
Thing is, Flowers has been up against it for about 10 months.
Last season was the second one since Carroll drafted Flowers in the fifth round and converted the former safety at Oklahoma State into Seattle’s starting cornerback the last two years. Flowers had promising moments in 2019, including the first three interceptions of his career. At times it was apparent why Carroll turned the 6-foot-3 college safety into one of his prototypical, long cornerbacks.
But at other times Flowers became a target. One that opponents exploited.
Offenses generally avoided Pro Bowl cornerback Shaquill Griffin’s left side in 2019. Griffin was on the field for 633 coverage snaps last season. Quarterbacks targeted him only 70 times, on just 11% of all pass plays. They threw more at Flowers and in the middle of Seattle’s defense, particularly at a series of nickel backs the Seahawks tried last year.
The former secondary with the famed “Legion of Boom” sunk to 26th in the NFL in pass defense in 2019.
Then came the Seahawks’ playoff game in Green Bay in January.
“Oh, the Green Bay game,” Flowers said Tuesday, ruefully.
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers followed the league trend in the NFC divisional playoff game at Lambeau Field. He mostly stayed away Griffin and picked on Flowers. It started with his first pass of the game. Davante Adams easily beat Flowers across the field on a sharp crossing route for a 14-yard gain.
Three of Green Bay’s first five throws were at Flowers. The third of those throws was Rodgers’ easy, 20-yard touchdown pass to Adams. Adams was split wide left just outside fellow Packers receiver Geronimo Allison. They faked a switch route of X-ing with each other. Flowers, who started head up on Adams, and Seahawks nickel back Ugo Amadi got turned around each other on the fake. Flowers initially went inside, as if expecting Adams to continue there. Amadi stepped inside, too. Adams stayed outside instead and cut to the goal-line pylon. He was open from Lambeau to Sheboygan. The Packers led 7-0 within the game’s first five snaps.
Green Bay went up 28-10 midway through the third quarter when Adams again turned Flowers around. That was for a 40-yard touchdown catch, putting Russell Wilson and Seattle’s offense in desperation mode.
After Wilson frantically rallied the Seahawks to within 28-23 with 9 minutes left, Green Bay had a third and 10. A stop by Seattle’s defense would continue the game’s momentum in road-white’s favor. The Packers sent Allison on another crossing route at Flowers. The cornerback could not keep up. Rodgers’ completion for 12 yards extended the drive. It was one of many key third downs late that finally ended Seattle’s season.
In all, the Packers completed four of six passes targeting Flowers specifically, for 86 yards. Both of Rodgers’ touchdown passes and the key first down late were at Flowers. Adams romped for 160 yards on eight receptions on that cold night in Wisconsin.
It was coldest for Flowers.
“It made me really attack every day this offseason,” he said. “Knowing that was my last game going off my second year, it bothered me.
“But it fueled me, too.”
It also fueled the Seahawks’ interest in Dunbar. Two months after that loss in Green Bay, Carroll and general manager John Schneider traded with Washington to acquire the 6-2 cornerback. The clear intent of the trade was for Dunbar, coming off a career season with Washington, to win the starting job from Flowers in 2020.
But then the coronavirus pandemic shut down NFL team facilities from March until training camps began in late July. Dunbar remained in Florida through the first weeks of Seahawks training camp. He was facing life in prison there before prosecutors dropped armed-robbery charges against him.
Meanwhile, Flowers worked out for much of this past offseason with Griffin, at least when the COVID-19 virus didn’t keep both locked down at home.
“We talked a lot, on a personal level and a football level,” Flowers said.
Flowers’ partner as the opposite starting cornerback the last two seasons talked often with him about the mental side of the game. And about that confidence Flowers is attempting to gain in himself after Green Bay.
“That’s why he’s so eager, because the only thing he knows that is what really people are thinking about,” Griffin said. “They aren’t thinking about the (three) interceptions he had, or all the tackles that he had, the pass deflections that he had.
“People aren’t bringing that up, because the game that he had in Green Bay.”
Flowers studied the film of every play he was on the field for in 2019. He learned there were so many more plays to be had, if he just believed in himself and his preparation, in his “know.”
He spent the spring into summer trying to take hesitation and uncertainty out of his game.
“That’s one thing I really focused on for this year. Just, cut it loose,” he said. “When I know, I go.”
How does one work on that in training, in the weight room or on a field?
“That’s actually a great question. It’s actually all mental,” he said. “And it can be turned on and off. I like to think of things that how I act on the football field is a little different than how I act in life.
“I’m trying to just go with the punches, other than trying to overthink things, trying to think about what the refs are going to call, or what route he may run if he doesn’t run that. I trust myself to know that I watch enough film to go with it, you know?”
Dunbar didn’t report to training camp at team headquarters until Aug. 9. His first practice with Seattle was Aug. 16.
While Dunbar was away, and while Dunbar underwent five days of initial COVID-19 testing protocols, Flowers kept his job.
Until Sunday. Tuesday, upon Flowers’ return to practice from the sprained ankle, Dunbar was still with the starting defense.
Carroll said this week of practices through Thursday are key to determine whether it’s Dunbar or Flowers against Julio Jones, Matt Ryan and the Falcons in the opener.
“I’m hungry, more hungry as ever,” Flowers said.
“I’m competing for everything.”
Challenged. In jeopardy of losing the job he’s had for two years, since his first game in the league. Yet undeterred.
“This is the highest my confidence has ever been in my life. I’m pretty sure of it,” Flowers said, chuckling.
“I feel good. I go to practice every day, I go get better. I compete.
“Yeah, I feel great. I come here with a smile every day.”
