Tre Flowers returning for Seahawks--to do what? D.J. Reed isn’t yielding Flowers’ old job
Pete Carroll has said starters don’t lose their jobs because of injuries.
Interpreting Carroll-speak (an art that is required to follow the coach’s Seahawks), what he really means is previous fill-ins haven’t performed nearly as well as the guys they’ve been replacing.
They haven’t performed nearly as well as D.J. Reed.
Tre Flowers was Seattle’s starting right cornerback in 2018 and ‘19. He is returning this week from injured reserve.
“He should be full (go) Wednesday, and all the way through the week,” Carroll said. “So he should be returning to us” for Sunday’s regular-season finale and playoff tune-up for NFC West-champion Seattle (11-4) against the San Francisco 49ers (6-9).
Returning to do what?
Reed has earned keeping Flowers’ old right cornerback job. He’s been a startling difference maker with speed and want-to in his four starts since Flowers went on injured reserve Dec. 5. That was after Quinton Dunbar went on IR last month.
The Seahawks acquired Dunbar in a trade from Washington in March to replace Flowers full-time as their starting right corner. But Dunbar isn’t coming back off IR. He had season-ending knee surgery this week.
Flowers started seven games this season. Then he strained his hamstring while playing all 71 snaps of Seattle’s win at Philadelphia Nov. 30.
Dunbar started four games. He gave away many passes at the sideline while playing too deep behind receivers, particularly on third downs. His chronic knee injury became an obvious liability on the field. Bills quarterback Josh Allen specifically exploited the hobbled, conservative Dunbar Nov. 8 when Buffalo rolled up 44 points and soared over Seattle. It was the most points allowed by the Seahawks since Carroll became their coach before the 2010 season.
Carroll this week called that Bills game “the final straw.” It prompted season-turning changes to the defense.
Reed has been one of those changes. More than that, he’s been a revelation.
Since he became an every-week starter—the first two games for Shaquill Griffin when the 2019 Pro Bowl left cornerback was out with a concussion last month, the last four at right cornerback for Flowers and Dunbar—the Seahawks are allowing 15 points per game. That’s half what they were allowing over the first eight games when Flowers and Dunbar were starting. It’s the fewest points allowed in the league over the last seven games.
Carroll this week said he wants Sunday’s game against eliminated San Francisco to be a continuation of the mindset and performance on defense the Seahawks need to take into the playoffs. Those begin in Seattle in 10 days.
Reed has epitomized that mindset and performance.
Slighted
The Seahawks claimed the former 49ers safety off waivers basically for free. San Francisco general manager John Lynch told Reed he wouldn’t play this season because of a torn pectoral muscle from the summer. The 49ers were planning to pass him through waivers and likely onto injured reserve early in training camp, which would indeed have ended his 2020.
Seahawks GM John Schneider blocked his division rival’s plan for Reed. Schneider claimed him, basically on layaway. Seattle knew Reed was a couple months, at least, from being healthy enough to play.
Three months later, he was.
He’s played nickel, safety, left cornerback and now right cornerback. He’s also replaced David Moore as the primary punt returner.
Why? Because he does everything decisively.
Reed plays with straight-line speed to the ball, to receivers, to ball carriers and into punt-coverage tackles. He also plays with an edginess from previously being slighted, told by the Niners he was done for 2020.
Carroll loves that attitude. The coach has won a Super Bowl and been to the playoffs now eight out of the last nine seasons, including this one, while stockpiling motivated reclamation projects like Reed onto his Seahawks rosters.
“He is one of the guys (who) reminds me of Doug Baldwin,” Carroll said last week.
That was after Reed said he played “pissed off” because Washington targeted him with top receiver Terry McLaurin. Reed got his second interception of the season, and his career.
Comparing a 24-year-old in his first month with the team to Baldwin is praise that’s close to Seahawks immortality.
Baldwin remains notorious for playing angry his entire, self-made career. He became a Pro Bowl and Super Bowl-champion wide receiver until his retirement following the 2018 season. “Angry Doug Baldwin” went from making $392,500 as an undrafted rookie in 2011 scrapping to get on Seattle’s special teams to signing a $46 million extension in 2016. He was—and probably always will be—ticked no one in the NFL drafted him out of Stanford a decade ago.
Carrying a chip? Baldwin, and now Reed, have ones the size of Mount Rainier.
Reed was cleared to the active roster Oct. 31. He debuted the next day for Seattle as the nickel back for injured Ugo Amadi—against the 49ers. Reed picked off Jimmy Garoppolo, now on injured reserve. His first career interception was against the team that said he wouldn’t be playing this year.
The game was 30-7 Seattle in the fourth quarter. It ended 37-27.
“Just plays with this marvelous attitude that drives just crazy stuff, just craziness,” Carroll said.
“He’s got it,” Carroll of an edge. “I’m kind of happy to know that he knows it.”
Carrying a chip
Before Reed started playing in it, Seattle had given up the most yards in NFL history through the season’s first two months.
Last weekend, Reed tied All-Pro safety Jamal Adams and rookie first-round pick Jordyn Brooks at linebacker with a team-high eight tackles as Seattle held the Rams to just three field goals. That’s how the Seahawks won the NFC West for the first time since 2016.
Dunbar’s contract is ending. He hasn’t been worth the Seahawks’ extensive efforts to make him a starter this year, including while he faced felony armed-robbery charges in Florida from spring into the summer.
Flowers has one more year remaining on his rookie contract he signed the year Carroll converted him from college safety to long, lanky, first-time cornerback.
San Francisco drafted Reed four spots ahead of where Seattle drafted Flowers in round five in 2018. His deal also ends after 2021. His slotted rookie salary next season is the same as Flowers’ ($920,000).
The 6-foot-3 Flowers is likely returning this week to a depth role, and perhaps as a situational nickel back inside against bigger slot receivers.
Reed is just 5-9 and 188 pounds. That’s about five inches shorter and 20 pounds lighter than Carroll’s prototypical Seattle corner.
So what? That’s what Carroll’s basically said the last month.
He loves Reed’s heart and speed—and his production. He’s at one of the sport’s most difficult positions to play, with NFL rules stacked against cornerbacks in huge favor of receivers and quarterbacks.
There are no indications that with Flowers back this week Reed will be sitting instead of starting again in the rematch against his old team Sunday in Glendale, Ariz. The top seed in the NFC and first-round bye is still a possibility for the Seahawks. It will take a Seattle win plus Green Bay (12-3) losing at Chicago (8-7) and New Orleans (11-4) losing at Carolina (5-10). All of those games begin at the same time (1:25 p.m.) Sunday.
Reed isn’t talking, playing or acting like a man who’s about to yield to Flowers. Or to anyone.
Asked how much what the Niners told Reed motivates him, Reed flexed his right arm and pantomimed putting a weight onto his back.
“Man, chip on my shoulder. Forever. For real,” he said.
“It’s heavy.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 7:31 AM.
