Flowers trade youngs up special teams

Josh Shaw: suddenly special teams vet and leading candidate for teams co-captaincy.The young Bengals got even younger Tuesday when they put special teams co-captain Cedric Peerman on season-ending injured reserve and they shipped fourth-year linebacker Marquis Flowers to the Patriots for a seventh-round pick as they braced for WILL linebacker Vontaze Burfict’s appeal of a five-game suspension.

The Flowers deal gives them the six backers that played the best in the preseason: Burfict, middle man Kevin Minter, and SAM backer Nick Vigil as the starters and backups Vincent Rey, and rookies Carl Lawson and Jordan Evans as backups. If Burfict is suspended, they may be able to stick with five…