Unser Chat » Tre Flowers is a fifth round rookie safety conversion project.

That now seems wildly preposterous L.J. Collier Jersey , given he’s already mastering Carroll’s defensive back technique. Like the 5th round success of Richard Sherman, the cornerback’s length is a massive help. With jamming and ball-playing aided, the scary aspect for offenses is that Flowers is faster than Sherman ever was, running a 4.45 forty-yard dash at the NFL combine. Way back in August, I highlighted the various Seahawk-y traits Flowers showed in college which would transition nicely to the pros. Yet I doubted his ability to start in his first year at the position: This was a time when Byron Maxwell was cornerback #2. Flowers’ improvements have stunned me. He’s grown throughout the season, showing a short-term memory but also never getting totally beat. Ladies and gentlemen, John Schneider has done it again. Flowers’ game against the Arizona Cardinals last Sunday was the perfect demonstration of his talents and the remarkable coaching skill of Carroll. The rookie’s ability has seen some teams target Shaquill Griffin more. While the Cardinals lack premier wide receiver talent, they did, at least, attempt to pick on Flowers. Let’s look at his technique within Seattle’s scheme.Staying in phaseYou may remember Arizona’s scored their lone touchdown off play-action after Akeem King bit on Larry Fitzgerald’s fake block.On his first snap of the game, Flowers somewhat bit on a play-fake too. Maybe it was the shifted Fitzgerald, the #1 receiver, running across the formation as though he were blocking split action. Or perhaps the two tight ends successfully sold they were run blocking at the beginning of their routes. Whatever the reason, Flowers took two steps forward—keen to set a strong secondary EDGE facing the run—despite having deep third responsibility.Flowers’ athletic ability meant he could recover though. He turned his hips quickly to run downfield with the deep crossing route of tight end Chris Hubert. Flowers then kept in phase with Hubert well. Knowing he had the help of Bradley McDougald over the top of the route, Flowers stayed in the hip pocket of the receiver. Flowers also took a path that undercut Hubert’s in-break. If Josh Rosen hadn’t led Hubert downfield, almost throwing a pick to McDougald, then Flowers was in position to play the football. As a defense, the Seahawks completely locked the bootleg flood up. Man against crosserSeattle’s confidence in their defensive backs versus the poor offense of the Cardinals saw them play lots of man coverage. Situated in the slot, Flowers aligned over Malachi Dupree with an off alignment and outside shade. The Seahawks’ cover 1 placed Flowers in a one-on-one with Dupree. As Dupree quickly bent his route to the boundary side, Flowers rapidly exited his shuffle and half-turned to open to Dupree’s side.His cushion distance over Dupree was near enough maintained. It would have been tempting for the corner to fully open and run downfield, but he stayed looking downhill and squarer for a few more steps—ready to break underneath.After diagnosing that Dupree was continuing downfield, Flowers turned and exploded. He pretty much ran the route for Dupree, blanketing the second-year wideout. Dupree contacted Flowers first, to which Flowers held his space and Rosen’s overthrow fell harmlessly incomplete. The area for Flowers to take this to the next level is for him to make a play on the ball Ugo Amadi Jersey , but it’s encouraging how much he looks for the pass in coverage. Speed-turn versus slantThe Dallas Cowboys will run double move routes with Amari Cooper. Be them a hitch-and-go or a slant-and-go, they will try to get cornerbacks to bite. While Shaquill Griffin has been fooling for such trickery this season, Flowers’ overall patience has seen him be wiser.He was beat on this third down by Pharoh Cooper though, giving up the first down. In straight man-to-man coverage outside, Cooper re-set the line of scrimmage against the press, inside shade alignment by releasing outside as though running a fade.Flowers’ jam had him with his right leg backwards somewhat, and the corner didn’t stay fully square or move with the jam; he was thinking go route. A degree more patience was needed here. As Cooper got Flowers to somewhat kick back to the fade, the receiver then used his far arm to subtly push Flowers’ in the back and fully turn the corner outside. Breaking inside unopposed, Cooper was open to catch the slant.Flowers’ cautiousness about being beat deep is far more preferable than the opposite. What Flowers showed after being beat was most impressive. Quickly realizing that Cooper had deceived him, Flowers executed a speed turn that saw him take his eyes away from his man. This is a brave move that requires confidence.The manoeuvre saw Flowers recover to play Cooper again. Rather than trying to make a play on the ball and missing, Flowers waited for the catch and brought Cooper down just over the first down line. Off-man missWe did get an uncharacteristic whiff from Flowers on 3rd and 4. He was in off-man coverage with Fitzgerald. Rosen immediately hit the hitch of Fitzgerald for the first down. Flowers had nice patience, stepping to maintain his position. Despite a few unnecessary added steps that will be eliminated with added experience, Flowers still triggered quickly downhill to make the tackle and stop any yards after catch.Except Flowers missed Fitzgerald. He went over the top of his man, as though trying to play the ball, and grasped nothing but air. Fortunately, Wagner’s rat-like zone enabled him to atone for Flowers’ excited mistake.Quarters techniqueThe Seahawks have run more and more two-high safety looks this season after Earl Thomas’ injury. The “red 2” version of “cover 2” has been a large reason for the defense’s effectiveness in the redzone. But in clear open-field passing situations, the coverages help compensate for the lack of range brought by Thomas’ absence. Carroll and Ken Norton Jr. opted for a cover 3 cloud that had strong match rules on this 2nd and 5 with just 15 seconds left in the half. For instance, Bobby Wagner matched the running back in his middle hook. The two-high safeties were free to be aggressive and play more like man on the #2 receivers.The cloud-look still featured three-deep shells, placing Flowers in the field-side quarter of the “quarter, quarter, half”. Flowers disguised his zone technique cunningly pre-snap, aligning in press-alignment as though in press-man. For Rosen, having faced some cover 2 man already, this could have been another version of that pass defense.Instead Mychal Kendricks Jersey , Flowers bailed late into his zone, look-in technique. He remained well over the top of Dupree and was able to observe Rosen’s turn. Flowers could see the ball as soon as it left Rosen’s hand all the way through his coverage, whereas Dupree hadn’t even turned to locate the football.With this head-start granted by look-in technique, Flowers attempted to intercept the overthrown Rosen pass while maintaining his over the top leverage. He was heavily contacted for about 5 yards by Dupree, which tangled Flowers in hand-fighting that stopped him from playing the ball. Really, this should have been offensive pass interference—something Flowers appeared to claim at the end.Walling inside manLike his sound outside leverage on Dupree’s crosser from the slot, Flowers also played with excellent inside leverage to wall the middle of the field. Tasked with covering Fitzgerald one-on-one in a cover 2 man, Flowers looked super comfortable on the 3rd and 13 after Seattle switched into the coverage late.Flowers adjusted his positioning to maintain his inside leverage on Fitzgerald. He opened to Fitzgerald to wall the receiver from the middle of the field as the receiver closed the cushion. This was great awareness from Flowers of the strength of this coverage (over the top help to the sideline) plus the weakness of this coverage (the middle of the field is left open).With Flowers in excellent position to run with any deep middle of the field route, he got physical when establishing his space and grabbed Fitzgerald. Some referees may have called a hold on Flowers, but the corner did well to not relinquish separation to Fitzgerald.Rosen wanted to go to Fitzgerald. But, after seeing the tight coverage of Flowers, the quarterback was forced to progress to a desperate back shoulder throw to the sideline. Flowers removed the passer’s primary read, a future hall of famer no less.Elite potentialThe examples covered had Flowers looking accomplished in a plethora of Carroll’s defensive back techniques. His game was virtually shut-down. In bump-and-run, off-man or off-zone the corner is employing various methods to win his individual matchups. His speed and length gifts him recovery ability. Moreover, he is demonstrating a clear understanding of the coverage concept each time and the role his individual assignment plays in each pass defense. Development is not linear. Flowers may have a “sophomore slump”. Yet right now, he appears to be hinting at “best corner in franchise history” potential. He’s got the best coach possible to realize that promise. Not bad for a guy who never played outside corner in college. The offseason focus will be adding interceptions to his game; there’ve been several near misses and Flowers does play with consistent ball-hawking intentions. Then he’ll be a complete master of how to play cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks.For more on Seahawks defensive back technique, check out these editions of Seahawks on tape: https://www.fieldgulls.com/2018/8/4/1764...osition-battles https://www.fieldgulls.com/2018/8/6/1765...rpe-tre-flowers This is a list of the things that are true about the 2017-2018 Seattle Seahawks, a team that just clinched another playoff berth:All-Pro strong safety Kam Chancellor was injured last season and has been unable to play since. The team signed him to a lucrative contract extension prior to that, which is taking up a significant amount of their cap space in 2018.The team fired offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and replaced him with Brian Schottenheimer. The first move was applauded by many, the second move was ridiculed by most.The team fired defensive coordinator Kris Richard and replaced him with Ken Norton, Jr. The first move was probably questioned by many and surprising to say the least, while the second move involved a coach who had been fired by the Oakland Raiders, of all teams.The team replaced Tom Cable with Mike Solari. Few didn’t like this.They traded Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Bennett for almost no return and no savings against the 2018 cap. They released All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman. All-Pro free safety Earl Thomas broke his leg in Week 4.Between Kam, Bennett Steve Largent Color Rush Jersey , Sherman, and Thomas, the Seahawks are spending almost $28 million on those four players with virtually no production other than four games from Thomas.They also lost defensive end Cliff Avril in Week 4 of last season and never really found a replacement for him.They waived their first pick in 2017, Malik McDowell, and they’ve still never seen him play for them.They didn’t have a second round pick in 2018. Instead, they drafted running back Rashaad Penny, who has been helpful but contributed very little as a rookie. Third round pick Rasheem Green has done even less. En total, their contributions from the first round of the draft since 2017 is a little bit of Penny, their return on the second round is some poor play by Ethan Pocic, and the third round is a little bit of production from Green, a lot of starts (but mostly inconsistent-to-uninspiring play) by Shaquill Griffin, inconsistencies from Nazair Jones, not much from Delano Hill, and virtually nothing from Amara Darboh.Basically, if you took away the first, second, and third round by Seattle over the last two years, you wouldn’t change the team by much. In fact, fourth round tight end Will Dissly looked like a steal who could offset that issue but he tore his Achilles.The team also let Paul Richardson (second on the team in yards for 2017) and Jimmy Graham (third in yards, first in touchdowns) leave via free agency. Some fans lamented the lack of compensatory picks and their production could not or at least was not replaced.The team lost Sheldon Richardson in free agency with Richardson saying that their offer was a joke. Instead, they used some cap space to sign Tom Johnson and Shemar Stephen in his place, then released Johnson after Week 1. Some fans ridiculed their handling of the Richardson and/or Johnson situations, and the team has been transparent in their admission of mistakes made. Less loud are the voices of praise that the front office found Jarran Reed in the second round in 2016.As the season approached, it became apparent that number one receiver Doug Baldwin was seriously hurt and that he might not be at 100-percent at any point in the year. Baldwin had one target and zero catches in Week 1 Patrick Kerney Color Rush Jersey , then missed Weeks 2 and 3, before returning in Week 4. In Week 5, he had one yard on one target. He also missed Week 14.K.J. Wright was seriously hurt just before the season and has missed all but four games. His cap hit this year was $8 million. The team found a gem replacement in Mychal Kendricks. After three games he was suspended for eight games. When he returned, he broke his leg.Starting running back Chris Carson missed two games with injury.Backup running back Rashaad Penny broke his finger in the preseason and has also missed the last two games.Free agent signee, planned starting tight end Ed Dickson opened the year in NFI, missing six games.Starting cornerback Tre Flowers missed Week 2, further weakening a secondary that had lost Sherman, Jeremy Lane, and offseason signees like Dontae Johnson and Byron Maxwell.Offseason signee D.J. Fluker has missed five games.Germain Ifedi missed Week 16.Dion Jordan was expected to pick up some pass rush production and has done almost nothing.J.D. McKissic opened the year on injured reserve, unexpectedly. C.J. Prosise still couldn’t stay healthy or do anything productive.Jordan Simmons steps in as a solid replacement for Fluker, then goes right onto IR after his second start.Bobby Wagner missed Week 2.The Seahawks schedule has ended up including games against the 9-6 Cowboys, 11-4 Bears, 12-3 Rams (twice), 11-4 Chargers, 11-4 Chiefs, and 8-6-1 Vikings. All playoff teams, if Minnesota wins next week or the Eagles lose. It’s a significant amount of difficult games. The team was 0-2 after two games, 2-3 after five, and 4-5 after nine.They are also ... going to the playoffs. Again.