Flowers’ Dolphins summer camp: 6th of a ton, Miami heat with lungs that survived COVID-19
COVID-19 symptoms can be absolutely debilitating.
Headaches. Fevers. Chills. Heavy chest.
And of course, shortness of breath.
Now imagine bouncing back from that illness while carrying 343 pounds in triple-digit heat index. And your job is to stop some of the finest athletes on the planet from destroying your quarterback.
“The first couple of days were rough,” said Dolphins guard Ereck Flowers, who spent nearly two weeks on the league’s reserve/COVID-19 list earlier this month.
“Then it’s like, you slowly just get over it. Then you have to work your way back with conditioning and your breathing and all of that stuff. I think they did a pretty good job of helping me work back before just throwing me onto the field. I think it went pretty smooth.”
Added Dolphins coach Brian Flores: “Everyone responds to an infection — that infection, sickness, injury — everyone responds a little differently. Obviously if you’re out for an extended period of time, your conditioning — whether it’s a world-class athlete or you or I — is not going to be as good as it was the 10 days or two weeks prior. That’s always going to be an issue, it doesn’t matter who it is. We just take it case by case and try to work the guys back and work them back into shape, and get them out there as quickly as we can.”
For Flowers — the Miami native who played his college ball in Coral Gables — that re-acclimation period was just a few days.
His healthy return to the team coincided with the Dolphins’ return to padded practices. Like he said, the Dolphins were cautious at first. The team’s presumptive starting left guard would do some team drills, but then peel off with a trainer for conditioning after a couple of reps.
But he’s been full-go ever since, and the Dolphins’ young offensive line looks better at this stage in the summer than it has since at least 2016.
At just 26 years old, Flowers is not only one of the more veteran players on the Dolphins’ line, but their entire roster. As many as three rookie offensive linemen — Austin Jackson, Solomon Kindley and Robert Hunt — could see significant snaps early in 2020.
And they all have kind things to say about Flowers, the former top 10 pick who signed a three-year deal with Miami this offseason.
“They’ve been very helpful,” Hunt said of the Dolphins’ veteran linemen. “Honestly, E-Flowers and Jesse [Davis] and all of those guys, they come to us separate and they give us little things to work on that they see that we can improve on. We’re all young. We’re working to try to get better, so those guys come up to us and help us with little things.”
If you told New York Giants fans that Flowers was a mentor to young players just 12 months ago, the response probably would have included a string of words four letters long. He was a pariah in the Big Apple after a high-profile failed stint at tackle.
But his career rebooted in Washington last fall with a change of attitude and position. Coach Bill Callahan moved Flowers to guard, and he — ahem — blossomed.
“I didn’t learn the importance of ... practicing the right things and taking that extra time,” said Flowers, who has quickly established himself as one of the team’s most thoughtful players. “It took me about four or five years.
“... The past year I got to play with Bill Callahan, who by far has been the best teacher — not just in football — I’ve been around since I’ve been playing football. He’s taught me so much. ... Going into my fifth year in the league, I kind of just forgot everything I knew and just tried to learn his way and the right way, and be around guys that do it the right way. That’s just how they do. Good players go before practice and stay after practice, and they put in countless reps to get any type of production.”
