FOXBORO -- Trey Flowers has seen Trent Brown before. Two seasons ago. Week 11. Santa Clara.
Flowers spent a large majority of that game against the 49ers rushing from the interior, but he ran into Brown's massive frame and long arms on multiple occasions. On a second-quarter Colin Kaepernick touchdown pass, Brown bench-pressed Flowers with enough force that Flowers very nearly face-planted.
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Now that the two are teammates, Flowers may be more familiar with Brown's skill set. But that hasn't made Brown any easier to figure out during one-on-one periods at Patriots training camp.
"Trent is big and he can move his feet well," Flowers said following Saturday's practice. "That's just a guy who...Can't really go around him. Definitely can't go through him. Just gotta find a way to kind of get him to move his feet or whatever. He's a big guy. You just gotta figure out a way, I guess."
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Easier said than done. Brown lost his first one-on-one matchup of camp on Friday when Adrian Clayborn used his speed and quickness to get by the 6-foot-8, 380-pound front-runner for the starting left tackle job.
But typically those moves haven't worked on Brown. For as imposing as his frame may be, he's athletic enough to shadow rushers who try to bend around the corner. That combination of size and nimbleness led Von Miller to call Brown "the best right tackle in the NFL." Niners coach Kyle Shanahan called Brown "the best pass-protection tackle I've ever seen in my life."
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"I went up against him in San Francisco," Flowers said. "He had some decent feet then. He's definitely a guy you can look at and you may think he's not as athletic, or he doesn't move as well. But he's surprising. He's definitely a good addition to the team. I'm glad he's on our team."