Tag: Kaden Elliss

Falcons LB Kaden Elliss named to NFL.com all-breakout team

Falcons LB Kaden Elliss was named to NFL.com’s “All-Breakout Team” for 2023 season

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The Atlanta Falcons are determined to make some noise this year, even if it means borrowing a few parts from their most-hated rivals. When veteran defensive coordinator Dean Pees retired following the 2022 season, the Falcons hired former Saints co-defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen as a replacement.

Nielsen didn’t come alone, though, as the team signed a few former Saints players to help implement his system. Defensive lineman David Onyemata and linebacker Kaden Elliss both followed Nielsen to Atlanta. While Onyemata is a proven veteran, fans know considerably less about Elliss.

The son of former Detroit Lions Pro-Bowl defensive tackle Luther Elliss, Kaden was drafted by New Orleans in the seventh round of the 2019 NFL draft. In 2022, Elliss finally got his chance to play a significant role and didn’t disappoint. He finished the season with seven sacks, 43 solo tackles and two forced fumbles in 11 starts.

NFL.com’s Bucky Brooks recently released his all-breakout team for the 2023 season and Elliss made the cut on defense:

The former special teams standout created a buzz in league circles last season with his strong performance as New Orleans’ third linebacker and emergency fill-in for Pete Werner. Elliss notched six of his seven sacks over the Saints’ final nine games, showing the football world that he could thrive as a full-time starter. After inking a a three-year, $21.5 million deal with the rival Falcons, the former seventh-round pick could put up the kind of numbers that make him a household name by the end of the 2023 season. – Bucky Brooks, NFL.com

Elliss, 27, has a lot to prove this season, but Nielsen knows him better than anyone. The former Idaho standout will almost certainly start for the Falcons in 2023. Time will tell if Elliss can live up to the $21.5 million contract he signed in Atlanta over the offseason.

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The Xs and Os: Atlanta Falcons have started a much-needed defensive overhaul

The Atlanta Falcons have started a desperately-needed defensive rebuild. Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar get into the specifics in this week’s “Xs and Os.”

With new defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen, who had been the New Orleans Saints’ defensive line coach,  I’d say to expect a lot more varied fronts and man coverage from the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons played man last season 22% of their snaps, which ranked 27th in the NFL. The 2022 Saints played man coverage on 40% of their snaps, which ranked second. New Orleans especially played a lot of 2-man – the most in the league.

Now, we don’t automatically assume that Nielsen will bring everything over from New Orleans, but when you look at their new personnel, they’re telling you what they want to do. They traded for Jeff Okudah, who is a dead-red press cornerback. Okudah had 43 coverage snaps in 2-Man last season. They got Mike Hughes, who was also with the Lions last season, and he’s played that stuff, as well. A.J. Terrell had kind of a down season in 2022, but he’s great when he’s on, and he is very comfortable in man coverage. 

Adding former Cincinnati Bengals safety Jessie Bates III certainly allows them to play more two-high stuff. Last season, the Falcons were in two-high 44% of the time, which ranked 24th. The Saints were in two-high 54% of the time, which ranked 15th.

Then, you add the guys to a front seven that didn’t do much of anything to disrupt the quarterback last season – they had the NFL’s second-fewest sacks with 21, and the NFL’s second-fewest pressures with 88. David Onyemata. Calais Campbell. Bud Dupree. Kaden Elliss. The Saints ran a ton of different fronts last season, and you’d expect a lot more varied fronts than we saw last season. Not that there will be a ton of blitz – the Falcons did it 19% of the time last season, and the Saints did it 15% of the time – but it’s more about throwing things at the quarterback pre-snap that the quarterback might not be ready for.

On this week’s edition of “The Xs and Os,” Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup discussed why Nielsen should bring as many things from New Orleans as he possibly can:

“One of the things I’ve done over the years is, when I talk to offensive coaches who game-plan, I always ask them, who are the toughest coaches and coordinators to play against? And Dennis Allen’s name always comes up. So there’s no question that Ryan Nielsen, who’s a younger coach… this is his background right now. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have his own ideas, but this is his background right now. So, you would expect to see a lot of those same principles.

“Now, Dean Pees was there, and Dean Pees is a guy who’s very multiple in how he approached pressures and coverages. So, it’s not as if they didn’t do a lot of different things, but you mentioned 2-Man, and I’ll be very curious to see if they’ll do that [in Atlanta]. Obviously to do that, you have to have a pass rush. Because if you’re going to play 2-Man coverage, that’s seven people in coverage. The five man-to-man defenders, and the two deep safeties. You need to be able to impact the quarterback with four defenders, and doing that within three seconds.”

You can watch Doug and Greg discussing that defensive overhaul right here:

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Pro Football Network predicts Saints defense will regress in 2023

Pro Football Network predicts the Saints defense will regress in 2023 after losing veterans like Marcus Davenport and Kaden Elliss:

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The New Orleans Saints addressed a lot of issues in the past season on the defensive side of the ball, but not everyone is convinced they’ll be a better team. Pro Football Network’s Arif Hasan recently projected that the Saints will have a middle of the road defense and regress a bit from last season. Here’s his reasoning:

Adding Bryan Bresee and Isaiah Foskey should help the Saints, who finished 10th in defensive EPA last year. But they lost quite a bit of defensive talent — Marcus Davenport, David Onyemata, Kaden Elliss, and Shy Tuttle are all gone. Not only that, it’s tough to project high-level play for Paulson Adebo and Bradley Roby despite the excellent secondary players they have otherwise. So, the Saints lose a little bit of ground in 2023.

While the Saints lost a lot of bigger-named players, they didn’t lose a ton of players that made largely positive impacts last year. Kaden Elliss was a great player, but would still have been the third linebacker on the roster. The others added almost nothing to the pass rush while also contributing to one of the worst run defenses in the country.

The defense was in large need of a shakeup and added two exciting players in the draft while also bringing in a couple of players in free agency who will likely be lateral moves for the guys that they lost.

Add in more development for Alontae Taylor and Paulson Adebo, while ideally not losing Marshon Lattimore for over half of the season, it’s hard to imagine this defense being worse than last season. The biggest concerns would be the older guys like Cameron Jordan and Demario Davis jumping the shark and regressing, but that was not a worry addressed by Hasan.

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Atlanta Falcons try out another New Orleans Saints free agent

The Atlanta Falcons brought in yet another New Orleans Saints free agent for a tryout: backup offensive tackle Ethan Greenidge

Can’t the Atlanta Falcons do their own scouting? The New Orleans Saints’ biggest rivals have signed a number of Saints free agents this offseason already, and they brought in another former Saints player.

Per the daily NFL transactions wire, Atlanta hosted offensive tackle Ethan Greenidge for a tryout on Wednesday. Greenidge spent the 2022 season on injured reserve, but before that he was a backup left tackle in New Orleans. He appeared in 17 games from 2019 to 2021, including the playoffs, though he played more snaps on special teams (83) than on offense (49). He first arrived in New Orleans as an undrafted free agent out of Villanova.

The Falcons offensive line needs all the help it can get in slowing down Cameron Jordan, so Greenidge could make sense for them as more depth behind Jake Matthews and Kaleb McGary. Atlanta general manager Terry Fontenot was a personnel executive for the Saints before taking that promotion, so it makes sense that he’s prioritizing players he thought of highly like Greenidge, Kaden Elliss, and David Onyemata in free agency.

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Full list of 2022 Saints players who have signed with new teams

Full list of 2022 New Orleans Saints players who signed with new teams

It’s been a busy two weeks of free agency for the New Orleans Saints, who have lost a number of players to other teams. They’ve managed to hold onto several of their own free agents, though, and many players from the 2022 team are still in limbo waiting to see where they’ll land in 2023 (you can find the full list here).

Here’s a quick glance at where each of New Orleans’ departures are going to be playing in the upcoming season. We’ll take one last look at the former members of the black and gold as the Saints focus on the players still available to them:

Few NFL teams have been poached as heavily as the Saints in free agency

Few NFL teams have been poached as heavily as the Saints in free agency. They’ve lost at least six players to other teams, at a combined annual contract value of $48 million:

Few NFL teams have been poached as heavily as the New Orleans Saints in free agency. They’ve lost at least six of their in-house free agents to other teams, several of them NFC South rivals. Per Over The Cap’s Jason Fitzgerald, the six Saints free agents who have left town are earning a combined average annual contract value north of $48 million. That ranks fourth-highest around the league, behind the San Francisco 49ers ($83.6 million), Las Vegas Raiders ($67.3 million), and Philadelphia Eagles ($58 million).

It’s hard to find fault with defensive tackle David Onyemata agreeing to play on a $13 million per-year salary, even if it’s with the miserable Atlanta Falcons. Hopefully he upcharged them, as did linebacker Kaden Elliss (who is bringing in $7.17 million a year in Atlanta). Defensive tackle Shy Tuttle ($6.5 million per year) and quarterback Andy Dalton ($5 million per year) are also drawing nice paydays from the Carolina Panthers. Defensive end Marcus Davenport got $13 million from the Minnesota Vikings. Wide receiver Deonte Harty, coming off a foot injury, received $4.75 million from the Buffalo Bills. We’re waiting to see what safety Justin Evans got from the Eagles, but it’s not expected to be substantial.

But back to the Saints. All of these losses will be challenging to replace, but the team has already gotten started by signing a couple of starting defensive tackles in Nathan Shepherd and Khalen Saunders. They were able to get Jameis Winston to return on a pay cut and back up Derek Carr. More depth along the defensive line, at linebacker, and at receiver is still needed, but that can all be addressed with time. Could they have matched some of these contract offers? Maybe, but it probably wouldn’t have been worth it. Better to stick to their price and rebuilt without breaking the bank.

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The best bargains and most underrated players in 2023 NFL free agency (so far)

Everybody wants to talk about the big-name signings, but here are the best bargains of the 2023 free agent class so far.

There are people in the NFL — especially people who have endured one or more instances of top-heavy free-agency spending — who will tell you that if you want to contend for a Super Bowl, the bottom third of your roster will be just as important as the top third at some point in time. Yes, you want optimal performances from the best and brightest, and if you get it, that’s great. But one of your star players will probably miss time with an injury. Another star might be involved in a contract dispute. And it’s entirely possible that the big-ticket free agent your team brought in for the gross national product of Estonia is actually a bad fit for what his new coaches would like him to do.

It happens all the time. To counter all of these little nightmares, it’s wise to find the best bargains in any free-agent cycle — those players who may not be marquee names, but whose performances on the field makes them important to you.

Especially when things go wrong up top.

There are still quite a few talented players on the open market, so we’ll be adding to this list as we go… but for now, here are the free agents either re-signing in their old homes or going to new locations who will impact their rosters much more than you may think.

Compensatory draft pick projections give Saints 10 selections in 2024

Compensatory draft pick projections give the New Orleans Saints 10 selections in 2024, but that number will go down once they begin signing new players:

Whew. The New Orleans Saints lost four of their free agents during Monday’s start to the NFL legal tampering period, in which opposing teams could reach out and offer contracts to players around the league.

David Onyemata, Shy Tuttle, Kaden Elliss, and Marcus Davenport each reached agreements with new teams within hours of the negotiating window’s opening. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that the Saints are for once poised to cash in with some valuable compensatory picks in the 2024 draft (which we’re tracking here).

The way things stand right now, the Saints would have a total of ten picks to work with in 2024:

  • Round 1
  • Round 2 (via Denver Broncos)
  • Round 4
  • Round 4 (compensatory for Marcus Davenport)
  • Round 4 (compensatory for David Onyemata)
  • Round 5
  • Round 6
  • Round 6 (via Philadelphia Eagles)
  • Round 6 (compensatory for Kaden Elliss)
  • Round 6 (compensatory for Shy Tuttle)

However, the Saints will be without their own selections in rounds two (traded to the Eagles in last year’s first-round move), three (traded to the Broncos along with Sean Payton), and seven (traded to the Houston Texans for Mark Ingram II), so these comp picks would only be shoring up some vacancies.

And New Orleans very likely isn’t going to end up with the maximum four comp picks allowed for player departures. Once they begin signing new free agents of their own, those additions will count against the losses and thin out the group based on contract value. It’s more realistic to expect two or three comp picks when it’s all said and done, but you never know. We’ll have to wait quite a while to see how this all plays out.

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Falcons expected to sign LB Kaden Elliss, per report

The #Falcons have agreed to terms with former Saints LB Kaden Elliss, according to a report from NFL Network.

The Atlanta Falcons are adding another former New Orleans Saints player. According to a report from Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, linebacker Kaden Elliss has agreed to terms on a three-year, $21.5 million contract with Atlanta.

Elliss joins his former teammate, David Onyemata, to play for Falcons defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen, who also comes from New Orleans.

Elliss, 27, started 11 games last season and earned an overall Pro Football Focus grade of 81.5. The former seventh-round pick out of Idaho recorded 43 solo tackles, seven sacks and two forced fumbles for New Orleans in 2022.

Atlanta has revamped its secondary and defensive line by signing Jessie Bates III and Onyemata, and now the team gets another productive player that knows Nielsen’s system.

Make sure to check out our free agency tracker and updated starting lineup projections after a wild start to the NFL’s legal tampering period.

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Kaden Elliss leaving Saints to join Ryan Nielsen, David Onyemata on the Falcons

NFL Network reports that fan-favorite Kaden Elliss is leaving the Saints to join Ryan Nielsen and David Onyemata on the Falcons:

Ouch. The Atlanta Falcons poached another New Orleans Saints free agent by reaching an agreement with linebacker Kaden Elliss, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

Elliss spent the first three years of his career on the Saints special teams units before impressing in 2023, posting career highs in tackles and sacks. He’ll be joining his former co-defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen and old teammates like David Onyemata and Jalen Dalton in Atlanta.

The contract value of what Atlanta offered Elliss remains to be seen, but it had better have been good to get him to leave the Saints for their biggest rival. Good luck to him out there. The Saints suddenly are looking very thin in the front seven after losing Elliss, Onyemata, Shy Tuttle, and Marcus Davenport on the first day of free agency.

Update: Rapoport adds that Elliss is going to sign a three-year, $21.5 million contract with Atlanta at the start of the league year on Wednesday, with $11 million in guarantees.

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