With Tre Flowers waived, is rookie Tre Brown up next to fix the Seahawks’ pass defense?
Tre Flowers is gone, waived because he didn’t make plays on passes in the air.
Tre Brown appears to be the next man up to solve the Seahawks’ ongoing issues at cornerback, problems that are debilitating the defense and this season.
Coach Pete Carroll said Wednesday Flowers did not ask to be released, as NFL Network had reported Tuesday.
“Not to me....He never said anything like that to me, ever,” Carroll said.
But, the coach said, it was time for him to change teams and re-start his four-year NFL career elsewhere.
“It was time for a change, for him,” Carroll said after the team officially put Flowers on league waivers Wednesday morning.
After what became his final Seahawks game, their loss Sept. 26 at Minnesota, Flowers talked candidly about “a gray area” between showing the initiative to make plays and adhering to Carroll’s and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr.’s assigned scheme.
He also spoke that day of a shadow he never shook in Seattle. Asked what he needs to do to make the aggressive plays on the ball that will change the results, Flowers said: “More film. More film study. More...
“Sadly, y’all want me to be Sherman.”
In 2018 after drafting Flowers in the fifth round, Carroll converted the 6-foot-3 college safety at Oklahoma State to starting Seahawks rookie cornerback in the mold of long, tall Richard Sherman. The coach said Wednesday he didn’t spend more time with any other Seahawk recently than he did trying to develop Flowers.
Asked where it went wrong in his project with Flowers, Carroll said: “You have to finish the plays and make the plays, and then come back when you don’t.
“You just have to find success. You have to find successful plays to build on. And there wasn’t...it was just his time to go on. It really is.
“That’s enough to say.”
Tre Brown, come on down.
Brown’s chance
This spring, Brown became the 10th cornerback Carroll and general manager John Schneider have picked in 12 drafts leading the Seahawks. All have been selected in the third round or later.
Five feet 10 and 185 pounds doesn’t fit the Carroll mold at cornerback. But running 4.42 seconds in the 40-yard dash does.
In size, Brown is more D.J. Reed, currently Seattle’s 5-9 starter at right cornerback. Reed opened Carroll’s eyes and mind to shorter corners with aggressive play in winning that job late last season. That was after initial 2020 starter Quinton Dunbar and then Flowers got hurt.
Brown said the day the Seahawks drafted him in May he is familiar with the step-kick technique, the unique way Carroll has his cornerbacks jam, turn then run with receivers immediately after the snap off the line of scrimmage. Brown credits Oklahoma assistant Courtney “Chip” Viney with teaching with the basics of the step-kick. He said Viney drilled him on running with receivers at a 45-degree angle off the line to stay “on top” of them, that is, not get beaten deep.
That’s Carroll’s number-one rule for his Seahawks cornerbacks: do not get beat deep.
Wednesday, Carroll picked up where he left off in August — that is, praising Brown. Brown was about to alternate into the starting defense to compete to start the opening game two months ago. Then he injured his knee.
Now, the Seahawks (2-3) have designated Brown to return off injured reserve to practice. It would take a roster move before Sunday night’s game at Pittsburgh for the rookie to make his NFL debut this weekend against the Steelers (2-3).
Carroll didn’t make it sound like that debut was far off.
Will Brown join Flowers in 2018, Shaquill Griffin in 2017 and Sherman in 2011 as rookie draft choices to start at cornerback?
“I’ve already talked to him about this is the time he comes back to action, and let’s see if he can return to the level of play (of training camp),” Carroll said.
“When he got hurt, he was right at the verge of competing, to be in (the running for) play time. He’d done a lot of positive things, and unfortunately the knee acted up and he couldn’t respond right then.”
Carroll said his film review of the training camp and preseason deep into August showed the former Oklahoma cornerback rarely missed assignments or got beat in coverage. The rookie was where he was supposed to be, when he was supposed to be there, to do what Flowers did not over four seasons: make plays on the ball as it arrived.
“I said to him today: ‘Let’s pick up where you left off, and show us that you’ve got your stuff together, and let’s see where that leaves you in the competition of it,’” Carroll said. “So he’ll be battling.
“He’s full go, ready to go.”
Carroll would not specify which side Brown is working in practices, Reed’s right side or Sidney Jones’ starting spot on the left. The coach said, coyly as usual, we will all have to wait and find out.
Odds are it’s on the left.
Jones so far
Jones, the former Washington Huskies standout, has not exactly seized the job for the longer term since he began starting and coaches benched Flowers two games ago, in Seattle’s win at San Francisco. The 49ers confused Jones and safety Jamal Adams with a double move up the right sideline by receiver Deebo Samuel for a 76-yard touchdown that briefly got the Niners back into that two-score game in the second half.
Last week, the Los Angeles Rams won (again) in Seattle while becoming the fourth consecutive team to gain at least 450 yards on the Seahawks’ defense. That’s only happened four other times in NFL history.
Rams coach Sean McVay and quarterback Matthew Stafford did the same thing the Vikings did two weeks earlier in beating Flowers and the Seahawks in Minnesota. L.A. ran crossing and seam routes attacking the middle of pillow-soft zone coverage by Seattle, while the Seahawks defensive linemen again failed to generate consistent pass rush to help the besieged secondary.
“As I said before, this is a copycat league,” Seahawks captain and All-Pro middle linebacker Bobby Wagner said.
Wagner said the Rams “mimicked” some of what Vikings did.
“It’s on us as players to get that corrected,” Wagner said. “Until we fix the problem...any team that watches the film” will put in those plays the Vikings and Rams used to beat Seattle, over the middle in the zone-coverage gaps.
Asked for his assessment of Jones, the former Eagles and Jaguars starter, in his second Seattle start last week against Los Angeles, Carroll said Wednesday: “A quiet week for Sidney, for the most part, this game. There were some plays (at San Francisco) where he knocked off some rust and saw some plays and did better this (past) week.
“Really smart kid and aware, and all that. Just really needed to get out there with us. And unfortunately the first time out, there were a couple plays. He played a good, solid game (against the Rams). The ball really went to the other side of the field more than (to) him.”
Carroll said after the loss to the Rams Thursday he was most frustrated by the same players making the same mistakes resulting in big plays against, and losses.
Brown isn’t the same player who’s been making the same mistakes. He has yet to play this season, or in his NFL career.
Carroll says that doesn’t bother him. Not with how his defense needs play-makers, pronto.
“I have no apprehension,” the coach said. “If you remember, I started Richard when we had to, back in the day. That was probably the first guy that was a rook’ (starting at cornerback for him).
“I don’t have any apprehension (with playing Brown). Just got to get him back on the field.”
When Carroll says a cornerback is getting a chance to play, it typically means to start for a bit. The long-ago NFL defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach doesn’t alternate cornerbacks during games, and rarely for one game to the next.
Carroll noted this week is Brown’s first full week of practice since August, because Brown and the Seahawks were doing only light, walk-through practices in their condensed three days of preparation from the 49ers game to the Rams game.
“We drafted him to let him compete for the job, and to see what would happen,” Carroll said. “And we’re sticking to that.
“That’s what’s happening right now.”
This story was originally published October 13, 2021 at 3:01 PM.
