I have not seen any rumors about Flowers coming back, but no-one has signed him either. I am not an expert, but there is some rule about signing players before the draft that count against the compensation pick formula, and I believe if a FA is signed after the draft, the salary is not used in the compensation pick formula. So I am guessing that some FA's agents have already negotiated deals to be consummated after the draft. I could be wrong, but I believe something like this is going on as a lot of quality FAs are still available. Whenever I hear "he is taking his time", "he is weighing all of his options", blah, blah, blah, that means there is something other than money involved.
Flowers did not live up to the hype in Detroit, and was injured a lot as well. He is like 270 lbs. so stouter than some of the others. If we had Flowers, Jermaine Johnson, and Travis Jones I think our D line problem is solved (I am trusting others more knowledgeable than me like
@WaterfallJumper on Johnson). But I am on the record and still believe that the Pats will trade down for an extra pick or two, and select Dax Hill with their first selection, much like when they traded back from the 23rd selection and picked Dugger in 2020.