Flowers headed to short-term IR

Lions DE Trey Flowers sustained a concussion in Sunday's loss to the Cowboys. We'll see whether he can progress through the league protocol in time for Week 12, but this isn't the 1st concussion of Flowers' career.

The Lions have activated DE Trey Flowers from the PUP list. NFL.com's Jelani Scott reports that the free-agent addition joined his team for practice Saturday. Flowers opened camp on the PUP as he worked back from offseason shoulder surgery, a known issue at his signing. We'll watch his progress, but Flowers should be fine to draft as planned in IDP leagues.

ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that former Patriots DE Trey Flowers will be signing with the Lions when free agency opens Wednesday. Flowers tallied 7, 6.5 and 7.5 sacks over the past 3 seasons but carries further upside in the form of hidden pressures. Pro Football Focus graded Flowers 8th among all 4-3 DEs and counted the 11th most pressures for the position in 2018. Flowers rated in a similar range each of the previous 2 seasons as well. In Detroit, he'll rejoin former New England DC Matt Patricia (now the Lions HC). Expect to find Flowers in DL2 territory in our 2019 IDP projections.

Patriots DE Trey Flowers left the 1st quarter of Sunday's game against the Jaguars with a concussion. The team quickly announced that he had entered the protocol. We saw a couple of preseason instances where a player was reported to have entered the league protocol but turned out to not have a concussion. Barring a return today, though, Flowers figures to be monitored all week and a question mark for Week 3.

Patriots DE Trey Flowers didn't appear in a single preseason game and put in limited work throughout training-camp practices because of an undisclosed injury. But MassLive's Andrew Callahan reports that Flowers is expected to play in Week 1. "Yeah, man. That's the plan," Flowers said Sunday. "I play football, so it's time for football to be played." IDP owners should plan to use Flowers against the Texans. We'll adjust expectations beyond that if we see his playing time limited.