For the first time this offseason, the New York Giants have seen offensive lineman Ereck Flowers, the enigmatic 24-year-old arriving at team facilities on Monday for offseason workouts. He had missed the first five weeks of the team’s workout program, which began at the beginning of April.
According to teammate and safety Landon Collins, who was somewhat reprimanded by new head coach Pat Shurmur shortly after, Flowers stayed at his home in Miami because he was upset that he had to make a move from left tackle to right tackle after the team signed Nate Solder to a four-year, $62 million deal in March.
Flowers hadn’t done much to prove that he was worthy of keeping his spot at left tackle though, as he was one of the worst offensive linemen in the NFL. Analytics site Pro Football Focus assigned Flowers with a grade of 51.4, which was ranked 54th among all offensive tackles in the NFL and given the designation of “poor”.
Needless to say, that’s not the kind of production the Giants were expecting from a talent chosen ninth-overall in the 2015 NFL Draft. He’s been given plenty of chances too, starting all but two games over his first three seasons in the league.
His inability to show up to workouts throughout April led the Giants to post his name on the trade market around the time of the 2018 draft in an attempt to acquire a fourth-round draft pick. A deal was unable to be worked out, though.
Shortly after draft night, on May 1, Flowers hired Drew Rosenhaus as his agent, his first real representation since being drafted into the NFL. His father was listed as his agent during the first three years of his career.
Now back with the Giants, for now at least, Flowers has a lot of missed time to make up for. Not only does he have to start working to get back into playing shape, he’ll have to do so attempting to acclimate to his new position at right tackle, which might be a disaster in the making considering the difficulties he faced in the NFL playing at his natural spot on the left side of the offensive line.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter was first to report of Flowers’ arrival to team facilities and revealed that “a trade is still an option,” for the Giants, but they will move forward with Flowers as their starting right tackle.
