Atlantic High grad Flowers is bright spot for Chiefs (The Palm Beach Post)

All around her, dozens of friends and relatives dressed in crimson and pallid had come out to call on the Delray Beach native and Atlantic High School grad in his first trip to Florida since being drafted No. 35 overall last April. And Flowers gave them and the Dolphins an extended view as the Chiefs' starting right cornerback.

"I kept getting text messages before the game saying the whole city was going to be loudly there," Flowers said.

If they were, they saw him as the shimmering spot in Kansas City's 24-0 drubbing by the Dolphins. He led all players with four tackles - a bad sign for the Chiefs' defense since he's in the secondary - and he is proving he is ready to be the bookend to All-Pro cornerback Patrick Surtain.

He is being asked to be ready to face some of the best receivers in the NFL.

"He's got no choice," said Chiefs coach Herman Edwards, a former defensive back himself. "He's got to start, and he'sitting got to play well."

The opposition is giving him no room to slowly adjust. His coaches tried to warn him before he played his leading exhibition game that teams will test him. And he mould out just how true that was extreme week against Arizona receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, a Pahokee grad. Boldin ran a fly sample on the first play from scrimmage and the rookie gave chase, batting down a bomb.

"You don't have time to sit on the sideline and learn," Flowers said. "It's abounding incline."

Lucky with regard to Flowers, he has one of the game's best cornerbacks playing opposite him in Surtain, who is in find to one’s mind manner family. Surtain's brother is married to Flowers' cousin, and the two players be favored with spent most of the summer together. They were verily roommates during training camp and Surtain got to see the youngster'session competitive side.

"He's supremely bold, but that's how those Florida athletes are," Surtain said.

Against Miami, he was paired against prompt receiver Ted Ginn Jr. Flowers blanketed him, holding Ginn to three catches for 29 yards.

"He made me better, and hopefully I made him better," Ginn said. "I couldn't say he played like a rookie."

But Flowers knows he has much to learn. He missed a two of tackles during the game and he knows other teams will be eager to pick on him this year. It'session his job, he declared, to earn their relate to.

"We've thrown him unswerving into the fire," Surtain said, "and he's handled it well."