HEADLINE

Lions DE Flowers to PUP, DT Harrison to report

Field Level Media

July 22, 2019 at 10:42 pm.

New Detroit Lions defensive end Trey Flowers will start training camp on the shelf with a shoulder injury, per multiple reports Monday.

On the bright side, the Lions will get back defensive tackle Damon Harrison, who told NFL Network he’ll report for training camp after sitting out offseason workouts in search of a new deal.

Flowers, an end and linebacker in the 3-4 defense, signed as a big-ticket prize in free agency in March. He left the New England Patriots, where he began his career as a protege of current Lions head coach Matt Patricia.

Flowers underwent what was described as a minor shoulder procedure at the end of the 2018 postseason. But starting training camp on the physically unable to perform list could be an ominous, unexpected signal of Flowers’ health. The Detroit Free Press was the first outlet to identify the nature of Flowers’ current injury.

Detroit opens training camp on Thursday.

The Lions spent almost all of last season without their prized pass rusher, Ziggy Ansah, who was playing on the one-year franchise tender but battled shoulder issues all year.

Flowers came in to replace Ansah, signing a five-year, $90 million deal to unite with Patricia. Flowers had 57 tackles for the Patriots last season and a career-best 7 1/2 sacks. He has 164 career tackles and 21 sacks in 46 games (37 starts) over four seasons.

Harrison, 30, was acquired for a fifth-round pick from the New York Giants last October and totaled 50 tackles (five for loss) with 3.5 sacks and seven QB hits in 10 games with the Lions. One of the game’s premier run-stuffers, he earned All-Pro honors in 2016 and hasn’t missed a game since 2012.

The eighth-year veteran has two years and $16.25 million remaining on his contract.

It’s unknown if the Lions’ other prominent offseason holdout, cornerback Darius Slay, also plans to report to training camp. Slay has two years and $23.5 million remaining on his contract.

Drew Rosenhaus, the agent for both Harrison and Slay, reportedly met with the Lions this week.

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