Patriots DE Trey Flowers, one of the top available free agents, reportedly recovering from shoulder surgery

New England Patriots defensive end Trey Flowers is one of the top available free agents this offseason. The 25-year old has been an incredibly important piece of the New England defense over the past several seasons, and is coming off of back-to-back incredibly strong seasons. During New England’s 2017 and 2018 seasons, Flowers played and started in 29 of 32 possible regular season games, recording 119 total tackles, 17 for loss, 45 quarterback hits, 14 sacks, and five forced fumbles. 

In our preview of the edge rusher class of free agents, we highlighted Flowers as one of the best available players. Given the increasing likelihood that each of the other four players in his tier (DeMarcus Lawrence, Dee Ford, Frank Clark, and Jadeveon Clowney) will receive the franchise tag, Flowers is likely to emerge as the single most sought-after defender on the market. 

Complicating things just a bit could be a recent surgery Flowers had on his shoulder, according to ESPN.com’s Mike Reiss. 

Reiss reported that it’s just a “clean-up” surgery so Flowers shouldn’t be affected too much, but any sort of injury and/or surgery heading into free agency is never good. Still, Flowers is in very good position heading into this offseason as a high-level player at one of the NFL‘s most important positions who has not yet reached his physical prime.