How Good is Brandon Flowers?

Brandon Flowers is Legit

The Jeff Report noted almost a year ago that Brandon Flowers may be the best player on our defense and was on his way to becoming an ELITE cornerback.  The term “shutdown” corner is thrown around too much these days and there are only 3-5 legit shutdown corners in the league, and I think Flowers is on his way to becoming one.

I remember Flowers from college (he actually played against KU in the Orange Bowl in 2007), and I thought it was a pretty good corner.  He was definitely physical, but the knock was that he may not have the speed to play at the elite level in the NFL.  Key word, MAY not have.  He was still regarded as a late first round talent, and when the Chiefs got him early in the second in 2008, everyone called it a steal.  I thought it was a good pick, but I didn’t know if calling it a “steal” was appropriate.  Well it wasn’t a steal, it was a heist.  This is like stealing the Mona Lisa, Flowers was the 36^th player in the draft and is a top 10 corner for sure (that is unbeatable) and actually more like a top 5. 

I suspected he would make the jump to be an elite CB.  He showed enough flashes last year that I thought he would pair that talent with consistency this year and make it happen.  That’s what I thought, and (so far) that is what has happened.  He is just straight up LEGIT.  I don’t know of anybody that is playing CB at a higher level than Flowers right now.  In 3 games, no opposing team has gotten anything done against Flowers.  It’s not even just that, he is a physical player and helps in run support as much as a safety.  He doesn’t miss open field tackles and he is as physical as anybody in the league (even you Darelle Revis).
 

His biggest perceived weakness going into the draft, lack of recovery speed, has not been an issue.  I think he has more than adequate recovery speed and he has shown it on multiple occasions.  He has unbelievable recognition skills coupled with his ability to read the QB and WR which lead him to have all the necessary skills to be an elite CB.  Oh yeah, and most important, he studies film as much as anybody else in the league.  If you wanna be a good CB you HAVE to study film and Flowers does it.  If he was in New York or Chicago or any other place that’s not KC, people wouldn’t shut up about him, just like Revis last year.  He is that good.

These next two games will be a big test for Flowers as he will go up against two of the best quarterbacks and best wide receivers in the league with Peyton Manning, Matt Schaub and Reggie Wayne, Andre Johnson respectively.  This will be a great test for Flowers and will show if he’s truly ready to take that step.  If he shuts down Wayne and Johnson, look out, Flowers is an All-Pro, and I have faith that he will.