The Patriot Way is done in Detroit.
The Detroit Lions informed defensive end Trey Flowers on Thursday that he will be released in a cost-cutting move next week, a person familiar with the decision told the Free Press.
The move, which could free up as much as $12 million in cap space, is expected to happen when the 2022 league year begins Wednesday. Flowers has a $1.625 million roster bonus guaranteed for injury due March 18.
Flowers was the most lavish free-agent signing the Lions made under former general manager Bob Quinn and coach Matt Patricia, and the last remaining of a slew of ex-New England Patriots the two brought to town.
Current Lions GM Brad Holmes praised Flowers after the season, calling him “the ultimate glue guy” and “ultimate leader” and saying he embodied much of what the organization is looking for in its latest rebuild.
Holmes declined comment on Flowers’ future at the NFL combine last week, but Flowers’ days in Detroit appeared numbered when he landed on injured reserve in December for the second time in as many years.
Flowers had a massive cap hit of $23.2 million in 2022, an extensive injury history that limited him to 14 games the past two seasons and waning pass rush production.
Since registering seven sacks in 2019, his first season in Detroit, Flowers had just 3.5 sacks in 2020-21, when he missed time with knee and shoulder injuries and a broken forearm.
“He’s what we’re all about in terms of grit and being just a football player,” Holmes said in January. “So it was unfortunate when he had to deal with what he had to deal with.”
Flowers, one of the Lions’ best run defenders and most influential locker room leaders, finished with 10.5 sacks in 29 games as a Lion. He made more than $54 million of the five-year, $90 million contract he signed in 2019.
Holmes, entering his second year as GM, is in the process of overhauling a defense that ranked 27th in points allowed and sack percentage in last year’s 3-13-1 season.
Five starters — sack-leader Charles Harris, defensive tackle Nick Williams, linebackers Alex Anzalone and Jalen Reeves-Maybin and safety Tracy Walker — will be unrestricted free agents next week, and the Lions have the No. 2 pick in April’s draft where they will be in the market for a defensive playmaker like Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson, Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux, Florida State’s Jermaine Johnson or Notre Dame’s Kyle Hamilton.
Romeo Okwara, who had a team-leading 10 sacks in 2020 but missed 13 games with a ruptured Achilles tendon last season, Austin Bryant and Julian Okwara are the Lions top returning edge rushers for 2022.
The Lions entered Thursday with about $26.5 million in cap space, according to NFL Players Association records. Free agency begins March 16.
Briefly
The Lions re-signed center Evan McCollum and outside linebacker Rashod Berry on Thursday, two exclusive rights free agents they did tender contracts to Wednesday. McCollum made one start and appeared in 13 games after signing off the Houston Texans’ practice squad last October. Berry made three tackles in five games last season.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.