‘Dream come true:’ This is a feel-good story for the Miami Dolphins in Week 2
You don’t get any more North Dade than Ereck Flowers.
Pop Warner team: Ives Estates Optimist.
High school: First Krop, then Norland.
Current NFL team: Miami Dolphins.
There’s playing for your hometown team. And then there’s Flowers, who didn’t grow up in Broward or Coral Gables.
He went to high school literally two miles and three turns from Hard Rock Stadium.
He went to games as a kid — idolizing Jake Long, another massive, athletic offensive lineman — and even sat in the bleachers at Nova Southeastern for training camp practices. He listened to WQAM in the mornings.
Sunday, eight years after he graduated from Norland and five since he left the University of Miami, his homecoming is complete. He will play a home game for the team he followed as a kid.
“At first [the dream] was making it in the NFL, and then you were looking at the possibilities of going places,” Flowers said Thursday, ahead of Sunday’s Dolphins 55th home opener against the Bills.
“I was like, ‘I would really love to play for them,’” he continued. “... It’s really a dream come true for me. Sometimes when you hear it, you don’t really sit down and think about it. Probably my family more so than me is realizing what’s going on.”
A few Flowers family and friends will be among the 13,000 fans allowed into Hard Rock Sunday, although Flowers caught a bit of a break by the reduced capacity. His ticket request list would be huge in a normal year.
Regardless, it’ll be a celebration for the many people who got him to this point — especially those who convinced Flowers to give up on his basketball dream and focus on football a decade ago.
That decision paid off with a full scholarship to UM, and eventually an NFL career that has already paid him nearly $30 million.
Flowers was a South Florida lifer until the Giants drafted him ninth overall in 2015. The adjustment to the NFL, and New York, was rough. He struggled as a tackle and washed out after just three-plus disappointing seasons with the Giants.
It wasn’t until 2019 when a change of scenery and position got his career on track. He signed with Redskins, who moved him to left guard, and Flowers flourished.
Twelve months ago, the idea that the Dolphins would offer Flowers a $30 million contract in the offseason would have been absurd. But it might end up looking like great value.
He’s become not only one of the Dolphins’ best offensive linemen, but also one of their most important voices in the locker room, mentoring rookies Austin Jackson, Solomon Kindley and Robert Hunt.
Flowers was encouraged by what he saw from Jackson and Kindley in their first start, but was far from satisfied. While the Dolphins allowed a lone sack in Week 1, the running game struggled.
And the task gets no easier Sunday against Jerry Hughes, Tremaine Edmunds, Ed Oliver and the Bills.
Buffalo surrendered just 52 rushing yards in Week 1 and sacked Sam Darnold three times.
“We know what we have to work on to get better,” Dolphins offensive line coach Steve Marshall said. “We’ve got to keep improving. This is the first game that they’ve played. We’ve got to take it that way and you always keep improving.”
Added Flowers: “I would like our identity to be technical. Technical. Hard-nosed and physical. Physical, but technical. The good offensive lines are technical. From hand placements to combo blocks. Just technical. That’s what really wins match-ups at this league. Being technical. That would be my vision. Like the Cowboys in those years. They were super technical. With their hands.
