Ereck Flowers at Giants facility after trade rumors

New York Giants offensive tackle Ereck Flowers was at the team's facility Monday for offseason workouts for the first time this year, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter.

The Giants had looked into trading Flowers around the draft, but they were unable to get what they were looking for in return. The Giants declined Flower's fifth-year option this offseason. The option would've been guaranteed for injury this season for between $12 million and $13 million, and given the Giants the option of having him back for the 2019 season for that salary.

A trade is still an option, but, for now, the Giants intend to play Flowers at right tackle, where they don't have much depth.

Chad Wheeler and Flowers are expected to compete for the starting right tackle job. The Giants didn't take a tackle in the draft and don't have much depth at the position. This would seem to indicate that, barring any significant move, Flowers will remain on the roster this season.

The Giants were keeping tabs on their 2015 first-round pick even though he hadn't been working with his teammates in East Rutherford.

"Yeah, we've been in contact with Ereck," coach Pat Shurmur said over the weekend. "It's our understanding that he's in good shape and, again, I got nothing. I can't wait for him to be here. I've mentioned it in the past, there were some things that he did last year that were really good, and I look forward to him getting here at some point and working with him."

Flowers hadn't participated in the team's voluntary workout program and elected to skip the first minicamp of the year. Safety Landon Collins recently said he had heard through his cousin that Flowers' decision was based off discontent from being moved to right tackle this offseason.

Flowers was the Giants' left tackle each of his first three seasons, until the team signed Nate Solder to a record deal this offseason. However, he had struggled in that role to protect quarterback Eli Manning's blindside.

The Giants didn't seem especially pleased that Flowers hasn't been around this spring. Shurmur noted that it was important for players to attend in order to help rebuild the team's culture following a 3-13 season and learn the new offensive and defensive schemes.

Flowers hired high-profile agent Drew Rosenhaus in recent weeks. He had previously been represented by his father.

Apparently some progress has been made between Flowers and the team. Shurmur didn't seem to know over the weekend if Flowers would even attend the team's mandatory minicamp next month.

"We'll see when he gets here. We'll talk about it then," Shurmur said. "We're communicating with him. There's been times when Odell [Beckham] hasn't been here and we've communicated with him, so we're looking forward to him being here and we feel like we're a better team with him here than without him."