The Houston Texans have completed the first wave of free agency and the 2022 NFL draft. Ostensibly the club has filled their roster holes and are ready to get to work.
The Texans still lack a solid veteran presence along the edge, but they could find one easily in defensive end Trey Flowers.
According to Gregg Rosenthal from NFL.com, Flowers ranks as the 43rd-best free agent when the new league year kicked off, and the ninth-best available.
Flowers was unable to stay healthy the last two seasons, but he’ll only be 29 years old this fall and had a PFF grade over 80 in every season between 2017-2020, making him one of the most consistent defensive linemen in football. He should still have good football left in him in the right scheme.
Flowers has familiarity with general manager Nick Caserio as he played for the New England Patriots from 2015-18, winning two Super Bowls in the process. Flowers spent the last three seasons with the Detroit Lions as he followed former Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia to the Motor City when he took the job in 2018. Flowers stayed on one more year through the beginning of the Dan Campbell era.
The former Arkansas Razorback generated 24 combined tackles, a tackle for loss, three quarterback hits, 1.5 sack, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery through seven games, all of which he started.
Flowers is 29 years old and still has some good snaps remaining.
The Texans’ defensive ends consist of Jonathan Greenard, Jordan Jenkins, Michael Dwumfour, Derek Rivers, and Demone Harris.
The offseason workouts will reveal where the Texans are at in terms of their defensive end situation, even if the pads aren’t on yet and the trenches aren’t yet colliding with one another. Nevertheless if coach Lovie Smith believes the edge defense could use a boost, they need to consider Flowers.
