How Trey Flowers Once ‘Embarrassed’ New Patriots Teammate

FOXBORO, Mass. — The Patriots welcomed a familiar face back to Gillette Stadium this week.

Trey Flowers signed with New England on Tuesday, reuniting the veteran defensive end with the team that drafted him back in 2015.

Flowers is coming off three consecutive injury-plagued, non-productive seasons, but he was an impact player during his first Patriots stint. From 2016 to 2018 — a run that included two Patriots championships and another Super Bowl appearance — Flowers led all New England defenders in sacks, tackles for loss and quarterback hits.

D-end Deatrich Wise, who overlapped with Flowers in 2017 and ’18, said he’s “super excited” to have his old teammate back in town.

“He’s a dog,” Wise said after Tuesday’s training camp practice. “Trey’s a great guy. You know how Trey is. Anybody who reported on Trey (from) 2016 until when he left, he’s been very productive, a great leader. So, good to have him back in the locker room.”

“He embarrassed me pretty early in my career, which humbled me and taught me a lot.”

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Hunter Henry on ex-Arkansas teammate Trey Flowers

Tight end Hunter Henry has even earlier memories of the Patriots’ newest pass rusher. He and Flowers were teammates at Arkansas, with the latter giving the former a rude introduction to the SEC.

“I was with Trey my first two years,” said Henry, who entered the NFL one year after Flowers. “He kind of introduced me to SEC football, actually. I was a receiver coming into Arkansas. A little light, probably. I never really got put in a three-point stance ’til college.

“So they threw me in on 1-on-1 drills, inside run with Trey Flowers, and he embarrassed me pretty early in my career, which humbled me and taught me a lot. It’s always good to see Trey. He’s a great player. Obviously, he was great here. He’s had a great career, so it’s fun to see him.”

It’ll be a little while before Henry, Wise and the rest of the Patriots see what Flowers can do on the field, however. The soon-to-be 30-year-old did not practice Tuesday and was placed on the physically unable to perform list hours after signing. He can be removed from that list at any time.

Injuries have been a major issue for Flowers since he left New England and signed a five-year, $90 million contract with the Lions in 2019. He had a solid debut season with Detroit (seven sacks, eight TFLs, 21 QB hits) but was limited to seven games in 2020, seven in 2021 and just four in 2022.

Flowers, who spent last season with the Miami Dolphins, has not appeared in a game since landing on injured reserve last October.

“He won’t be practicing right away,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said. “… He hasn’t played in a while, got injured in September of last year, so we’ll see.”

If Flowers remains on PUP through cutdown day, he’ll be ineligible to play for the first six weeks of this season. If he’s activated before then, he’ll compete for a roster spot in Patriots D-line that returned every contributor from last season and added second-round draft pick Keion White.

“I haven’t seen Trey in a few years,’ Belichick said. “But he’s been a hardworking guy, loves football, competes well, smart player.”