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Why Didn’t Tre Flowers Play Cornerback at OSU?

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We recently received a reader email asking the question below related to former Oklahoma State safety Tre Flowers and his switch to cornerback in the NFL.

“Why didn’t Gundy make this change while he was at OSU? How did Pete Carroll see this but no one on the OSU coaching staff did?”

Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll announced shortly after drafting Flowers in the fifth round that Flowers would be making the switch to safety at the professional level. This came as a surprise to some Cowboy fans as we had seen him struggle in coverage at times during his career at OSU.


However, during his rookie season for the Seahawks, he has looked very solid in coverage and seems to be transitioning smoothly into his new role.


Flowers has started at cornerback in five of the Seahawks six total games this year. The only game he didn’t start he was inactive due to injury. He’s recorded 27 total tackles, 2 passes defended and has 1 forced fumble during that time period and has really impressed Carroll with his play.

“He’s really on his way to being a real legit starter and trying to solidify himself in that way, but that’s the risk is if they have the setbacks and the issues or the game-crucial plays and they don’t make the ones that they want, then it might weigh more heavily on them and affect their ability to perform. But he’s doing a great job.” [247Sports]

So, should Gundy, cornerback coach Tim Duffie and safties coach Dam Hammerschmidt be to blame for not switching Flowers from safety to corner in college? Well, there are several things to consider when answering this question.

First the college and NFL defensive styles are very different. Especially when it pertains to Glenn Spencer’s Oklahoma State defensive scheme versus what Carroll and the Seahawks like to do on that side of the ball.

Spencer and the Cowboys used a lot of dime and nickel, two deep safety packages to combat the up-tempo, spread offenses of the Big 12. Oklahoma State ran a lot of zone coverage with the cornerbacks playing off of the receivers.


On the other hand, the Seahawks, use a lot of tight, press man trail techniques with their cornerbacks.


Flowers’ size and length, at 6-3, 203 pounds, allows him an advantage in the Seahawks scheme which he wouldn’t have in the loose, zone coverage sets he was in at OSU. This advantage is being able to get his long arms on the receiver and jam him at the line of scrimmage. In addition, his elite speed, posting an impressive 4.45 40-yard dash time at the combine, allows him to stay with receivers even when playing press coverage and not allow them to get outside separation. You can see an example of this in the clip below as Flowers is at the top of the screen.


We saw Flowers has issues with off-coverage throughout his career at Oklahoma State, as the Seahawks SBNation site Field Gulls shows in the clip below. We see Flowers covering the slot motion man here.

Field Gulls had this to say about Flowers off-coverage in the slot.

“Whenever Flowers descended into the slot, he got roasted, conceding an NFL passer rating of 108.4, per ProFootballFocus. That’s pretty dismal. He doesn’t quite have the agility to twist in and out; his footwork gets sludgy.” [Field Gulls]

As you can see, Flowers seems to be better fit for the press man coverage schemes than he is for the loose, off-coverage zone packages that OSU ran under Spencer.

Along with the contrast in defensive styles between college and the pros, another item that needs to be considered in Flowers position switch is Carroll’s love for long, lanky and athletic cornerbacks. Flowers showed at the combine that he fits all of these categories. He had the longest arms and was the tallest of all defensive backs at the 2018 combine, along with posting the 4.45 40-yard dash time I mentioned above. This length comes in handy in coverage as he’s able to recover when he’s initially beat by the receiver and still make a play. We saw him use this length to his advantage while at OSU.


You could sense Carroll’s excitement about Flowers measurables from his quotes shortly after the draft.

“This is one that I’m really excited about,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said of Flowers. “We spotted a player that we thought had special qualities that could be a corner. He’s played safety basically his whole life. I think he’s been a three-and-a-half year starter at Oklahoma State, and I really liked the way he played there. But because he’s so tall and because he’s so agile and he’s a good tackler and a good all-around player, I think we’ve got a chance to have a really nice prospect. Next to BB (Brandon Browner), this is probably the tallest guy we’ve coached (at cornerback), so it’ll be fun to work with him.” [Seahawks.com]

And, as we’ve seen from Seattle’s defenses under Carroll, he like his guys to be extremely physical, so I’m sure hits like this from Flowers stood out to him on film.


Additionally, this isn’t the first time Carroll has asked a college safety to move to cornerback at the next level. Carroll did the same thing with 2017 draft pick Mike Tyson. Tyson played safety during his time at the University of Cincinnati, but when the Seahawks drafted the 6-2, 204-pounder, they quickly asked him to move to the cornerback spot.

In conclusion, the argument can be made that Flowers might have been a solid college cornerback, but he was a more than capable college safety at Oklahoma State. In addition, the defensive scheme under Glenn Spencer might not have fully unlocked Flowers potential at the conerback position, and he might have struggled playing in off-coverage zone on the outside.

We also know that Pete Carroll’s style calls for these taller, longer cornerbacks, and this is not something we see in college football very often, and we didn’t really see it from Spencer in his time as DC for the Cowboys. I don’t think you can really put any blame on the OSU coaching staff from not making this switch at the college level when you consider all of these circumstances, along with how well Flowers played at safety during his Cowboy career. It’s definitely and interesting question though and I really appreciate the reader for posing it to our staff.

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