Heaps: Seahawks not practicing what they preach by still playing CB Tre Flowers
Sep 28, 2021, 9:28 AM
Vikings WR Justin Jefferson catches the ball during the first half and is tackled by Seahawks CB Tre Flowers. (Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)
(Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)
The Seahawks lost for the second week in a row, and once again former NFL quarterback Jake Heaps has some serious concerns about the play of cornerback Tre Flowers.
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Against the Tennessee Titans in Week 2, Flowers was beat repeatedly by Julio Jones. In Week 3 against the Minnesota Vikings, Justin Jefferson was the man beating Flowers on his way to a nine-catch, 118-yard day with a touchdown.
Heaps is wondering why Flowers is playing as much as he is, especially when the Seahawks have another cornerback with starting experience in Sidney Jones on the roster after trading for him before Week 1.
“You know how I feel about this,” Heaps told his Jake and Stacy co-host Stacy Rost on Monday. “I told you this last week that Tre Flowers at the least should be rotating in with Sidney Jones and there should be a heavy competition going on in the middle of the game. They did not do that at all.”
Heaps pointed to comments head coach Pete Carroll made after the game about Jones.
“He’s close to playing for us. The competition is on,” Carroll said. “I told him I thought we might play him today but we just didn’t get it done today. We’ll be looking at everything.”
“How does that happen?” Heaps asked. “You tell him ‘We think we’re going to get you in today,’ Tre Flowers has one of the worst games we’ve seen and then Sidney Jones is still standing on the sideline?”
Rost said she thinks Carroll is being risk averse by continuing to play Flowers over Jones because of Flowers being in his fourth year in Seattle. Heaps isn’t buying that.
“A known commodity that is getting beaten over and over and over and over again that is not doing his job effectively,” Heaps said of Flowers. “He gets to stay on the field? There’s zero accountability there?”
Another big issue with Flowers continuing to play while struggling, Heaps said, is that it goes against the Seahawks’ mantra.
“It’s a terrible mindset. It completely goes against the grain of what you preach in that building, which is always compete,” Heaps said. “Sidney Jones is obviously going to see the field after you hear (Carroll’s comments). But to me, I don’t understand that mindset. I don’t get it. I really don’t.”
Listen to the discussion at this link or in the player below.
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