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The Cincinnati Bengals didn’t need long to get a big showing from new cornerback Tre Flowers.
Cincinnati claimed the former Seattle Seahawks fifth-round draft pick on waivers back on October 14. Two days later, comments from Bengals coaches made it pretty clear they might have big plans for him.
Turns out they did.
Roughly a week after those comments, Bengals coaches turned Flowers loose in that 41-17 beatdown of the Baltimore Ravens, making him responsible for tight end Mark Andrews, as NFL Matchup’s Greg Cosell explained:
“In their man concepts out of dime, they disguised the matchups at times, but one constant was corner Tre Flowers matched on Baltimore tight end Mark Andrews. That was the game plan approach. On 3rd-and-15 in the first quarter, the Bengals played Cover 3 behind a three man rush with Flowers man-to-man on Andrews. Jackson unnecessarily climbed the pocket and created his own pressure that he could not escape from, resulting in a sack by defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi. Matching up Flowers on Andrews was a strong concept and part of the reason he was limited to just three catches for 48 yards, and none on 3rd down when Flowers was matched on him.”
That was pretty much what we had presumed Flowers would do right away by residing in that same role Ricardo Allen occupies as a third safety who comes on to play the matchup game in certain scenarios.
Flowers, like Allen, can be an underrated matchup asset and also enable coordinator Lou Anarumo to dial up exotic blitzes, sending safeties like Vonn Bell in an effort to provide pressure.
While Flowers hasn’t played a ton of snaps, the team’s ability to identify how he could help and get a quick turnaround on that is impressive.
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