Lions place OLB Trey Flowers on injured reserve

Linebacker Trey Flowers‘ season has come to an end. The Lions’ pass rusher has been unable to stay on the field all year, missing four out of 11 games this season.

Flowers joined the Lions in 2019 after signing a substantial five-year deal worth $90 million. Flowers had racked up 21.0 sacks and 25 tackles for loss in three full seasons with the Patriots after missing all but one game of his rookie season. Flowers showed the production his contract promised in his first year with Detroit tallying 7.0 sacks and eight tackles for loss. His injury troubles would begin the following year, however, as he played in only seven games, a total he was only able to match and not surpass this season.

The Lions will now have to consider what the future holds for Flowers in Detroit. He holds a cap hit in the 2022 season of $23.24 million, with about $12.85 million being potential dead money. It’s hard to say if the Lions have been able to move on without Flowers this season. Despite Flowers’ limited production resulting in only 1.5 sacks this year, that total is still good for fourth on the Lions.

Still, the Lions might decide that the risk of losing Flowers to injury might not outweigh the significant cap space he’ll take up. For now, shutting Flowers down gives him a chance to get healthy as the Lions take time to determine his value.