Bengals swap LB Marquis Flowers for Patriots draft pick

The Cincinnati Bengals have announced that the team has traded LB Marquis Flowers to the New England Patriots for a seventh-round draft selection in the 2018 draft. Flowers was a sixth-round draft pick of the Bengals in 2014, but has played just 96 regular season snaps since then, 94 of which came in his rookie year.
Flowers has seen significant preseason action in each year of his NFL career, but his grades have been up and down. He currently has a solid overall PFF grade of 74.9 for this preseason, but he has played under 20 snaps in each of the past two outings working with the backups.
Run defense has been the better-graded area of his game. This preseason he has been targeted five times in coverage, allowing a reception on all give passes for 42 yards and a touchdown, yielding a passer rating of 141.3 when thrown at. A 2018 seventh-round pick is about the lowest form of trade compensation you can find, so Flowers is very much a long shot to make the team.