PATRIOTS: Flowers toeing the line

With his solid play in the Pats' defensive line in a contract year, Trey Flowers is driving up the price this offseason. Flowers is literally positioning himself to cash in.

FOXBORO – It's a contract year for Trey Flowers – and the Patriots defensive lineman is putting the pressure on.

Opposing quarterbacks are currently feeling it in the pocket; eventually, the Patriots – or some other team – will feel it in their pockets.

Someone will ultimately have to (literally) pay for this.

For now, Flowers is playing to rave reviews in Foxboro.

“Trey’s given us great play all year,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said. “He’s a tough matchup guy. He played left end and he also played inside (while participating in 42 of the 56 defensive snaps in the Patriots’ 38-3 regular season-ending rout of the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium on Sunday), as he does in most games. He can match up on the tackles. He can match up on the guards and centers and that gives us some flexibility with some other players as well. He’s had a tremendous year for us and he always does a tremendous job.

“Nobody works harder than Trey does. His toughness, his durability, his consistency and his ability to play the running game, the passing game and to play it in different positions, you don’t see a lot of guys on the defensive line (do that), but he’s done it and he’s done it well and it’s certainly helped our overall defense as well as whatever spot he plays. His ability to have versatility and move helps us in other ways, too. He does a great job for us.”

He did it all against the Jets, finishing the game with six tackles (one shy of cornerback J.C. Jackson’s team-high seven), a sack and a forced fumble as the Patriots wrapped up the second seed in the AFC playoffs and a first-round bye that advances them to the divisional playoff round at home against either Houston, Baltimore or the Los Angeles Chargers on Jan. 13 at 1:05 p.m.

With the sack, Flowers finished the regular season with 7-1/2, easily a team high and also a career high, eclipsing the seven he had in 2017.

"It is what it is,” said Flowers. “I’m not into the numbers. (It’s) just … affecting the game, putting my team in a position to win, and that’s what it’s all about. You just want to get better each and every year and I feel like I did that. I guess statistically I did that, yeah.”

Flowers may not be “into the numbers,” but they go a long way toward telling the tale of the player the 6-foot-2, 265-pounder has developed into since he appeared in just one game his rookie year as a fourth-round draft pick out of Arkansas in 2015.

While Flowers’ 56 tackles were 11 more than the 45 he totaled in 2016, they fell shy of the 62 he made last season. Since recording 6-1/2 sacks in 2016, he’s improved by one-half sack per season, continuing to trend upward in this, a contract year, positioning him to cash in as an unrestricted free agent during the upcoming offseason. His three forced fumbles this season were also a career high.

Numbers aside, it may be his versatility that Flowers is most proud of, his ability to line up outside or move inside.

“From my rookie year not getting on the field to my second year just trying to find my way: That’s where I started off at, inside, so it’s one of those things that I just had to develop and continue to take pride in because that was the only way I was getting on the field. So I had to get good at it,” said Flowers. “So it’s just one of those things that no matter where I am on the field, I just want to be able to be effective.”