Arkansas Edge Trey Flowers NFL Draft Scouting Report
When scouting the class of pass rushers for the 2015 NFL Draft, one player that has gone a bit overlooked is Arkansas Razorbacks senior Trey Flowers. Flowers isn’t a guy that is going to make waves like Dante Fowler Jr, Vic Beasley, or Randy Gregory, but later on in the draft, this is a player that could be a really nice find for some team as a rotational rusher.
Measurables
Strengths
Flowers doesn’t put up huge sack numbers, but he causes a lot of problems for opposing offensive lines. He plays with good functional strength and he uses his hands really well. As far as technique goes, I feel like Flowers is pretty sound and pro ready in that area. He doesn’t take a lot of false steps, nor does he usually make many mental mistakes.
One thing that I really notice about Flowers off the bat is that he has long arms and big hands, and when he gets them fully extended it looks like he’s swinging a big club at offensive linemen.
Not the fastest or the quickest, but Flowers has learned to beat offensive linemen in other ways and wear them down as the game goes on. When he gets locked in with an offensive lineman, he’s able to win one-on-one battles because of his length and strength.
I also really like his relentlessness in pursuit of the football.
Weaknesses
Flowers barely ran a sub-5 second 40-yard dash. He had a 10-yard split of 1.74, which is also really not good for his position group. He didn’t show at Arkansas that he could be a big time edge rusher, despite being one of the best defensive ends on the team. Speed is just not the name of his game.
Despite showing versatility at Arkansas to play along the DL wherever, I don’t think Flowers has much scheme versatility. He probably wouldn’t be able to play in a 3-4 look due to concerns over whether or not he could cover anyone.
NFL Scheme Fit
4-3 RDE
Round Projection/NFL Impact
I think Flowers should land somewhere on day three for some 4-3 defense looking for a guy that can come in and provide steady play as a powerful end that can set the edge and occasionally get a pass rush. When I watch Flowers, I’m reminded a bit of Robert Ayers. When he was with the Broncos, Ayers was known as “Almost Ayers” because he could never quite close in on a sack, but he was always pretty darn good at everything else.
Flowers is like that to me. He’s just good at a lot of different things that you want a defensive end to be good at, he’s just not a great pass rusher, which will hurt his draft stock ultimately.
I think this is the type of player that can come in and be part of a rotation defensively at RDE in a 4-3 scheme. He’s not spectacular, but a solid player overall.