Many see old-school traits in Flowers' game - including one former DE recently name-checked by Patriots' DL coach Brendan Daly

FOXBOROUGH -- On Tuesday, Patriots defensive line coach Brendan Daly compared Trey Flowers to James Hall, a defensive end who played 12 years in the league — seven with the Lions and five with the Rams. On Wednesday, I tracked down Hall to ask him what he thought of the comparison.


Hall played for Daly in St. Louis — Daly was the defensive line coach with the Rams from 2009 through 2011, the last three years of Hall’s playing career — and sounded like someone impressed by the comparison.

“I haven’t watch enough of Trey’s game closely to give you a deep thought on the comparison, but from what I’ve seen from him, Trey is a very good player who has been tremendously productive in the postseason,” Hall told BostonSportsJournal.com. “I’m certainly flattered Brendan would think of my playing style the same way.”

On Tuesday, Daly was asked if he ever had a player quite like Flowers, and Hall’s name came up.

“I had a guy by the name of James Hall who was with the Rams, ironically, when I was there, who had a lot of similarities in terms of play style, in terms of his versatility, in terms of his football IQ and his technique,” Daly said. “He reminds me a little bit of Trey.”