One of the main reasons the Lions paid beaucoup dollars for free agent EDGE Trey Flowers is his ability to impact the game at key moments. That’s something Flowers did extremely well during his Patriots career, and he does it in a way the Lions simply have not had of late.
Third downs are Flowers’ time to shine.
Pro Football Focus gives some important context to Flowers’ rushing ability and how impactful he was on the critical third down passing situations,
Detroit Lions: Among the 49 edge defenders with at least 200 third-down pass-rushing snaps since 2017, Trey Flowers‘ pass-rush win rate of 23.2% ranks third, while his pressure rate of 20.1% ranks second.
The Lions defense wasn’t bad on third downs in 2018. Detroit allowed opponents to convert 37.1 percent of those situations, good for the 12th-best third-down defense in the league. Adding an impact talent like Flowers to disrupt the timing and create pressure should elevate Detroit’s defense into a top-10 unit on the all-important third down.
That’s why Flowers is getting big money. He’s earned it for his ability to stop drives and wreak havoc.
