Breaking down new Lions safety DeShon Elliott and what he offers Detroit
The Detroit Lions signed former Baltimore Ravens safety DeShon Elliott to a one-year contract on Wednesday, helping to shore up the weakest position group on the entire roster.
What are the Lions getting in Elliott?
At 6-foot-1 and 210 pounds, Elliott is built thicker than a lot of safeties. The 24-year-old entered the league as a sixth-round pick from Texas in 2018. His selection was well-received for a late-round pick despite the fact Elliott only started one year at Texas and left a year early.
As a 2018 draft pick, Elliott make his NFL debut until 2019. It’s impossible to go any further in Elliott’s scouting report without bringing up the injuries. They are the predominant story for an otherwise promising player:
- 2018 – Missed entire rookie season with a broken arm suffered in preseason
- 2019 – Played six games before suffering a knee injury that required season-ending surgery
- 2020 – 16-game starter
- 2021 – Played six games before a torn pectoral and torn biceps (at the same time) ended his season
That’s 28 games played out of 65 in four seasons. He also missed considerable time at Texas — seven games in his freshman season and four more as a sophomore — with different, unrelated injuries.
Keeping Elliott on the field has been the big challenge for the Ravens, and now the Lions. When he’s been on the field, Elliott has played like a quality NFL starter with some real impact-play upside.
Some safeties are good at playing the ball in the air and preventing completions that way. That’s not Elliott. He’s from the “dislodge the ball by smacking the receiver” school of pass coverage. Elliott has seven career PDs. Five of them came from him physically separating the ball from a receiver who already had started the process of the catch (h/t Sirius NFL Radio).
In Baltimore, Elliott was at his best playing in the box and attacking downhill almost as an extra linebacker. The Ravens used him some as an EDGE safety, and he does have good anticipation and closing speed as a blitzer against both the run and pass.
In a more traditional free safety alignment, Elliott was fine when the play was in front of him. He’s not adept at changing direction on the fly and doesn’t have the blazing long speed that allows him to stay with faster receivers in man coverage. The tightness in space also limits his over-the-top range.
The Ravens figured out his role as he played more in 2020, his one year as the full-time starter. He improved the more he played, notably in coverage as he and his secondary mates learned how to play off one another better.
Elliott did get some looks as a slot corner, almost exclusively over flexed-out TEs. He was fine here in rudimentary coverage but man coverage against better receiving TEs is not where he wins. In Detroit, that needs to be Tracy Walker’s role.
Overall, Elliott is a big hitter and solid tackler in space who offers a physical presence at safety. Injuries are a constant worry, and his gung-ho playing style doesn’t help him avoid injury. He should be the starter next to Walker in Detroit’s split-safety package and handle the box/blitz role. He’s a definite upgrade at that spot over Will Harris and Dean Marlowe, but that optimism must be tempered by the lengthy injury history. It’s a one-year trial on a player with considerable upside but enough questions that a long-term commitment doesn’t make sense at this juncture for the Lions.
