Ereck Flowers saga reaches its natural conclusion for New York Giants

No doubt that offensive tackle Ereck Flowers was a major first-round disappointment for the New York Giants.

The saga between the No. 9 overall pick from the 2015 NFL Draft and the New York Giants reached its official conclusion on Tuesday. The team’s official website announced that Big Blue waived the lineman.

For anyone following the team for the past four seasons, that news cannot be considered surprising. In fact, most folks would state that it took too long for Ereck Flowers to be cut.

Those folks obviously don’t pay much attention to the NFL’s salary structure, where first-round draft picks receive four-year guaranteed contracts. If you feel that’s crazy, then take the issue up the next time the league’s collective bargaining agreement gets negotiated. The guaranteed contracts actually represent a compromise position of sorts.

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The Giants were paying Flowers full 2018 salary one way or another, so it made sense to see if he could be salvaged in any way. And on Tuesday we got the answer.

Per Giants.com on Tuesday:

"“Ereck Flowers’ once-promising career with the Giants ended today when the former first-round draft choice and starting tackle was placed on waivers.”"

Former Philadelphia Eagles draft pick Brian Mihalik was signed to the active roster from the New York Giants practice squad to replace Flowers. Ironically, Mihalik was the Birds seventh-round draft choice (237th) in the same 2015 NFL Draft that produced Flowers.

Spreading the blame

Throughout his New York Giants career Flowers did little to ingratiate himself with the fanbase. In that respect, he became a very easy target. But rather than being described as a first-round bust, Flowers, in essence, was another failed draft pick under former general manager Jerry Reese.

The difference?

Well, Flowers should have never been drafted as high as he was. There was no sterling resume to indicate future greatness. He was just a big, strong guy who thrived on those attributes exclusively. And once Brandon Scherff was scooped up by the Washington Redskins with the No. 5 overall selection, Big Blue and Reese were left scrambling.

And for the record, Scherff won the 2014 Outland Trophy.

The G-Men needed an offensive lineman in the worst way, and let’s face it, the 2015 draft was not overflowing with offensive lineman prospects. Now, the obvious draft pick would have been running back Todd Gurley, but he was coming off a knee injury and running backs were devalued then.

Let’s not rewrite history.

If the Giants were desperate for linemen (which they were with Will Beatty being injured), then the move would have been to trade up and grab Scherff. The price would have been expensive, but Scherff is already a two-time Pro Bowler.

Instead Reese reached for Flowers, but in fairness, Reese wasn’t the only one who screwed up. According to NFL.com, draft guru Mike Mayock called Flowers a future “Pro Bowl right tackle”.

That prediction was not even close, as Flowers could never be considered even a serviceable left or right tackle.

Mayock also said, per NFL.com:

"“[Flowers] is going to go in the first round.”"

Truthfully, the New York Giants drafts under Reese and vice president of player evaluation Marc Ross were clearly subpar. So let’s just consider Flowers a bad draft pick, and be done with it. Hopefully the franchise has made adjustments in the way it does business internally. Remember, there seemed to be a communication gap between the front office and coaching staff, and Reese swung for the fences (and missed) far too often.

Does anyone read a scouting report?

Right tackle or left tackle, Flowers didn’t possess the agility and footwork to get the job done. That major red flag was evident for everyone to see in his pre-draft scouting report.

Flowers scouting report, per NFL.com said:

"“Flowers has good size and short area foot quickness, but he also features some lower body tightness and struggles to get proper depth quickly to consistently meet edge rushers. Some of Flowers’ pass protection issue may be difficult to overcome.”"

At the end of the day, it makes sense for everyone to move forward, and cutting Flowers (and his guaranteed contract) becomes the cost of doing business. More importantly, it should be a loud wake-up for head coach Pat Shurmur and general manager Dave Gettleman that coaching up some of these guys isn’t going to work.

Plenty of roster decisions were made with the idea that the New York Giants were going to compete for a playoff position this season.

At 1-4, how’s that plan going?

I would venture to say that New York Giants fans would have accepted 2018 as a complete rebuilding season, especially if some light at the end of the tunnel. The record would have likely been exactly the same at this point.

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Instead, the team chose to spray Fabreze on a stinky offensive line by drafting Saquon Barkley. The competitive rebuild also brought in high-priced veterans like tackle Nate Solder, running back Jonathan Stewart, edge rusher Kareem Martin, linebacker Alec Ogletree and guard Patrick Omameh. At some point, the franchise has to cut its losses and start anew, maybe this is the first step.

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