When the Chiefs were placed on the clock in the second round of last weekend’s draft, many Chiefs fans were curious as to the direction the team would go, considering the bevy of needs the team still had after drafting DT Glenn Dorsey and OT/OG Brandon Albert in round one.
Would they stick to addressing their biggest need along the offensive line? Or would they go after a play maker at wide receiver or cornerback? It’s never easy to tell what a team is thinking during the NFL Draft. Teams routinely engage in doublespeak that would make a long serving politician jealous and to the average fan that is not accustomed to sifting through the garbage to find the kernel of truth, it must seem as though the team is lying through their teeth. And let me be the first to tell straight up that they are most definitely lying to us when they give us ideas about who they’ll be drafting at a certain spot. It’s all part of the show.
So count me in with the shocked (in a good way) fans who watched the Chiefs toss away their old habits of drafting solely for need and ignoring vastly superior players when they handed their pick to the NFL and selected CB Brandon Flowers out of Virginia Tech. I had shouted Flowers’ praises for weeks leading up to the draft, and felt that he was a perfect fit for this team, as his skill set is best suited to playing the Cover 2 defense the Chiefs have installed under Herm Edwards, but never in my wildest dreams did I think the Chiefs would actually pull the trigger on him in this year’s draft.
To say that I was excited about the pick, is a pretty big understatement. I’ve been sold on what Flowers’ brings to the table for the Chiefs from the first day I laid eyes on him two seasons ago at Virginia Tech, and I crossed my fingers and prayed that we would have a shot to get him on our team when the 2nd round started to unfold.
The biggest reason why I love this guy is the way he carries himself when he’s on the field. He doesn’t back down from anyone. He flies around the field covering anyone and everyone the opposing offense throws at him, and if he’s in a position to make a play on a ball carrier, you can bet that he’ll be there laying the wood.
Gone are the days of watching Ty Law stand 15 yards away from a wide receiver on crucial third down plays. Flowers will be in the face of every receiver he matches up against, and will not give up any ground lightly. Receivers will have to earn any semblance of a cushion by attacking him deep, and even then, Flowers has enough closing speed to make up any ground and break up a play. His size was the biggest knock on him coming out of college, but he more than makes up for it with his intelligence and agility.
Flowers knows exactly how to react to what the wide receiver is doing because he studies their game on film so hard before he hits the field to play. He is the classic workaholic professional, only in his case it’s a good thing because he gains such a huge advantage over his opponents because he knows them better than they know themselves.
The other major factor Flowers has going for him right now is that the Chiefs already have veteran leadership in place on the opposite side of the field in former All-Pro CB Pat Surtain. Flowers will start for the Chiefs from day 1, but under Surtain’s tutelage, he should pick up his role on the Chiefs defense very quickly, and should have very little difficulty translating his bruising and relentless play into the pro level.
All in all, Flowers is the kind of player at the CB spot that head coaches and GMs drool over in the off-season. He has all the skills and intelligence to quickly become one of the best players in the league, and Chiefs fans everywhere should be counting their blessings after having him land fortuitously into our laps in round two last Saturday.
If you can’t wait to get a first hand look at Flowers this weekend during the Chiefs rookie mini-camp, feel free to watch his highlight film, courtesy of Rivals.com
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Touchdown! Score big this 
