So How is Chris Ellis Doing?

[ghz in pittsburgh]

A friend of mine (VT grad) reminded me about his boy Chris Ellis with the following link.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/24/AR2006082401724.html

Honestly I haven't followed his progress last year at all. I remembered reading somehwere that he needs to gain weight and needs to improve his technique (like being too high from his stands). So far this off season, he's off the map completely.

[Night Train]

All these DE/OLB pass rushing hybrid types in the draft. Looks like he could lineup as a pass rushing LB like Maybin, Orakpo, Brown. He had that type of ability in college, like these guys.

Hey coaching staff..Knock,knock..

you have nothing to lose.

[THATHURMANATOR]

He didn't get much of a chance last year.

[Raptor]

You know this is the stuff C.Brown should be updating us on

[bigbub2352]

THe proof is in the pudding Only our ****bag coaching staff and FO wouldnt see the tredn coming out of college is that the DE/OLB tweeners which is what this draft is chalk full of are what has been coming out of college these days
but hey lets stick with that awesome Cover2

Hope Ellis gets a chance over Copeland Bryan this yr

[FlyingDutchman]

He had a miserable preseason. Lucky to be on the team

[justasportsfan]

THe proof is in the pudding Only our ****bag coaching staff and FO wouldnt see the tredn coming out of college is that the DE/OLB tweeners which is what this draft is chalk full of are what has been coming out of college these days
but hey lets stick with that awesome Cover2

Hope Ellis gets a chance over Copeland Bryan this yr

:up: Our insisting on keeping the cover 2 means we're smarter than majority of the teams in this league that use a 3-4 and made it to the playoffs or won a sb.

[TigerJ]

He was on the roster for all of last season, but was inactive most weeks. He got a little playing time toward the end of the season and had a yackle or two. As Flying Dutchman states, he had a terrible preseason. He was not nearly as NFL ready as we might have hoped. Still, the team thought enough of his upside to keep him on the active roster rather than put him on the PS and risk someone signing him away. His main weakness was literally his weakness, He needed to get a lot stronger. I guess he probably struggled a bit learning the defense too. Tom Modrak said in a videotaped interview this offseason (you can find it at www.buffalobills.com (http://www.buffalobills.com) that he expected Ellis to make about as big a jump as anyone from his first to his second season. Of course, he has further to jump than just about anyone too. He does have that upside though, so there's hope.

[TigerJ]

:up: Our insisting on keeping the cover 2 means we're smarter than majority of the teams in this league that use a 3-4 and made it to the playoffs or won a sb.

There is at least one possible advantage in sticking with the Tampa 2 and resisting the trend toward the 3-4. With so few teams using the Tampa 2 most of the offenses Buffalo faces will have less and less exposure to the Tampa 2 as time goes on. I'm being only sllightly facetious here. It is true that the more everyone does things the same way on defense, the more opportunity offensive coordinators will have to develop effective ways to attack it. That is part of the reason why defenses become more or less effective.

[Captain gameboy]

I note that your link is from 2006, not meaningful anymore.

I think I was the most vocal supporter of Ellis in the draft, and I will stand by that for one more year.

I saw him three or four times in college, live, and being a Bills fan, the guys I watch play college that we draft remind me of former Bills.

What he reminded me of, and why I was happy we got him, was Daryl Talley.

Admitedly, he is about 30 pounds heavier, as is normal for the spread between LB and DE positions.

But he was so fast.
In college, offensive players are a lot faster than defensive players.
You get used to watching the difference.
Ellis looked like he was as fast as any linebacker. He looked like a kid that needed to play pro.
During the draft, I mentioned that I thought he could be a better pass rusher than Chris Long, who I have seen countless times.

I still like the kid.

This is his make or break year.

[venis2k1]

I hope he turns it around. I cant handle another John McCargo-esque disappointment on the D-line.

[HHURRICANE]

He was on the roster for all of last season, but was inactive most weeks. He got a little playing time toward the end of the season and had a yackle or two. As Flying Dutchman states, he had a terrible preseason. He was not nearly as NFL ready as we might have hoped. Still, the team thought enough of his upside to keep him on the active roster rather than put him on the PS and risk someone signing him away. His main weakness was literally his weakness, He needed to get a lot stronger. I guess he probably struggled a bit learning the defense too. Tom Modrak said in a videotaped interview this offseason (you can find it at www.buffalobills.com (http://www.buffalobills.com) that he expected Ellis to make about as big a jump as anyone from his first to his second season. Of course, he has further to jump than just about anyone too. He does have that upside though, so there's hope.

I feel better now that Modrak said that. His drafts are so good that I'm not worried anymore.

[DMBcrew36]

Right now he looks like a WASTE of a high draft pick. Hopefully he can change that this year.

[jimbohastle51]

he is was known as a lazy player in college and it showed through in his preparation last year. he was WAY behind the curve. hopefully he can pull it together this year.

[Captain gameboy]

he is was known as a lazy player in college and it showed through in his preparation last year. he was WAY behind the curve. hopefully he can pull it together this year.

Where did you see that he was lazy at Virginia Tech?

[Spiderweb]

Where did you see that he was lazy at Virginia Tech?


Lazy? I do recall that during the little bit of playing time he got last year, he spent 80% of it on his back after getting decked by opposing offensive lineman. The kid showed little speed, zero strength, and seemed completely lost (did I mention over-matched?).

Yeah, I just can't wait to see what he brings this year.......

If he's a hope for 2009, we're in serious......:poop:

[LifetimeBillsFan]

For what it is worth, I watched Chris Ellis very closely last season and here's my assessment of him:

Chris Ellis was a third round draft pick and not a first round draft pick, despite the fact that good pass-rushing DEs are at a premium in the NFL, for a reason. Actually a couple of reasons that became quite obvious during his rookie season with the Bills.

A lot of top level college players are often so much more talented than some of the players that they go up against on the college level that they can get away with relying on their natural ability, having poor technique or knowing only a limited number of moves to use to beat their opponents. This may be okay on the college level, but it doesn't work in the NFL when they go up against professionals who have just as much athletic ability as they do and already know how to effectively negate their limited skill-sets.

Chris Ellis is a player who fell into this category and you could see it when he got on the field last season.

As a pass-rusher, Ellis was effectively a "one trick pony". While not freakishly fast, Ellis has sufficient speed and quickness to be a "speed rusher" as a DE. But, he showed that he only had two moves in his arsenal last season: 1.) burst around the OT to the outside; and 2.) fake the burst to the outside and cut to the inside of the OT on a direct line to the passer. He actually showed some nice quickness to his initial burst off the line of scrimmage on a number of occasions, but he quickly found out that OTs on the NFL level can easily negate those two moves by either pushing him further outside away from the passer or pushing him further inside where he would get "caught up in the traffic" of the OG blocking the DT. And, when that happened, he had no moves to counter that with (like a bull-rush). As a result, while he was able to get close enough to the QB to exert some pressure in the preseason when he was going up against less experienced OTs, for the most part he wasn't very effective and at times got tossed around like a rag doll when he had to go against better, more experienced OTs.

Ellis isn't the first DE to come into the NFL and have this happen to him--a number of pretty good pass rushers have had the same experience. Techniques and moves are things that can be learned. The guys who become good pass rushers after not having much success as rookies (R.Mathis, J.Tuck and A.Kampman are three that come to mind) are the ones who learn and get better. The ones who don't learn aren't around long.

Chris Ellis still has a chance to develop into a pretty decent pass rusher because he did show a nice burst off the line of scrimmage, but he really needs to work on and improve his technique and add additional moves to his repertoire in order to do that.

One of the things that Ellis must do in order to accomplish that is to get stronger. While he had nice size coming in, he showed that he simply wasn't strong enough to keep himself from being pushed around by opposing OTs. He had trouble sustaining his rush and even keeping his balance at times. And, he didn't have the strength to use a bull-rush as an alternative to a speed move without getting engulfed by the OT.

Ellis must come into training camp considerably stronger--not necessarily bigger or heavier, but stronger--than he was last season in order to be able to be able to improve his technique and add more moves to his repertoire. It is one thing for him to know what he needs to do to upgrade the level of his play, but it is quite another for him to have the physical strength that he needs to be able to do those things.

Fortunately, adding additional strength is not that difficult for a NFL player to do if he commits himself to working in the weight-room in the offseason. It is well-known that NFL players generally make their biggest jump in improvement between their first and second seasons and one of the biggest reasons for this is that they tend to get much stronger once they spend some time working in a NFL strength and conditioning program.

Now, according to Modrak in the interview cited above, Ellis has been working a lot at OBD this offseason. And, that is one of the reasons that he cites for why he expects Ellis to make such a big jump this season.

Obviously we will have to see if that is going to actually be the case. But, by no means is it out of the realm of possibility for Ellis to show that he is considerably improved this season, even to the point of being able to push for a starting job. Indeed, I would not be surprised at all to see him get considerable playing time this season.

One of the knocks on Ellis coming out of college was that he had a tendency to take plays off at times. I did not see that from him last season. Perhaps it was because he did not play that much and, therefore, wasn't on the field long enough to take any plays off. Perhaps it was because he felt that he had to play hard the few plays when he was on the field in order to impress the coaches and get more playing time. Either way, the effort was there on every play that he was in--it's just that he didn't know what to do when the things that worked for him in college didn't work for him in the NFL.

I'm going to be very interested in seeing how Chris Ellis plays this year because I think that he could be a pivotal player in how much success the team is going to have--not just this season, but over the next couple of seasons.

Ellis has the ability to develop into a pretty good NFL player--maybe not a 15-18 sacks per season guy, but a solid 8-12 sacks per season player--if he gets stronger and really improves his techniques and moves. The question is: will he improve as much as he needs to improve?

I don't know the answer to that question. Modrak says that Ellis has been working very hard this offseason, so I'm willing to believe that some of that work is going to show and that he will be better this coming season. How much better? Will it be enough to make him a solid player? We won't know until we get a chance to see him going against some real opposition.

What I will say is that Ellis still has a chance to develop into the kind of pass-rusher that we all had hoped that Kelsay would become. I don't know if he has the ability to develop into an adequate replacement for Schobel. The Bills love Kelsay for his leadership in the lockerroom and are likely to be reluctant to move him out of the starting lineup unless they have a player who is head and shoulders better than him. So, I don't see Ellis being able to supplant Kelsay in the starting lineup this season. But, if Kelsay plays at the level that he did last season and Ellis does make a big jump in his development this season, I could see Ellis getting a lot of playing time spelling both Schobel and Kelsay.

Now, that's assuming that Ellis makes a big jump in his development. A jump in his development is to be expected from Ellis as he is going from his first season in the league to his second. But, he was a big disappointment as a rookie. Just a normal jump in his development should take him to the level of a Kelsay or Denney, which really wouldn't be much of an improvement for the Bills other than that it would add some more depth to the position. It would help some, but, again, it would be a disappointment because the Bills need more than just that and because Ellis should be able to give them more than that.

IMHO Ellis will be in the mix at DE this season and will give the Bills more than they got from him last season. It remains to be seen, however, how much Ellis will be able to give them. And, that's why I am going to be watching him closely this season to see what he is going to bring to the team. It'll be interesting to see....

[justasportsfan]

This is his make or break year.


A make or break year only on his second year? Who would want to be drafted by the bills if so?

[Tatonka]

awesome post. LBF

[DrGraves]

side note- chris brown is a worthless piece of crap. they should take his ugly face off the first page of the bills website. thats the last thing i want to look at.

[psubills62]

I'm surprised so few people mention our new DL coach, Bob Sanders. Sanders has helped a lot of guys become very good pass rushers. If Ellis needs to work on his repertoire of moves and technique, I'd be willing to bet Sanders can help him with that.

I'm not saying Sanders will turn Ellis into a monster this season who gets 20 sacks, but I do think that Ellis has a very good opportunity to improve.

[ghz in pittsburgh]

Good point on Bob Sanders. It's interesting that the Bills hold onto McCargo where almost everyone thought he's gone by the end of last season. Instead the Bills more or less let Koller leave. Maybe they think the old DL coach was the problem?

In any event I can't help thinking about the prospect of some healthy contribution from McCargo. Let's face it, the guy has some talent as we saw in his second year. He could not get along with Koller and last year's failed trade must've sent a strong message to him. By all accounts, he's been working hard this off season so maybe we are in store for some pleasant surprise?

[feldspar]

Good point on Bob Sanders. It's interesting that the Bills hold onto McCargo where almost everyone thought he's gone by the end of last season. Instead the Bills more or less let Koller leave. Maybe they think the old DL coach was the problem?

In any event I can't help thinking about the prospect of some healthy contribution from McCargo. Let's face it, the guy has some talent as we saw in his second year. He could not get along with Koller and last year's failed trade must sent a strong message to him. By all accounts, he's been working hard this off season so maybe we are in store for some pleasant surprise?

McCargo seems to be an enigma. We tried to get rid of him, but he couldn't pass the physical in Indy...disks in his back? I'm sure we are all aware of this. However, he is still on the roster, which says something I guess. We traded up to get him in the first round, as we all also know. I'd really like to know what's going on with HIM. He seems to be totally lost in the shuffle...no news at all. Is he going to play this year? In rotation maybe? We must have some hope for him on some level if he is still on the roster.

Anybody have any news on McCargo? This is the stuff Chris Brown should be talking about.

By the way, I really enjoyed your post LifetimeBillsFan. Seemed to make a lot of sense.

[WeAreArthurMoates]

Luckily for McCargo, Sanders like's his DT's fat. I think that was the main problem with Kollar here, he wanted trim DT's and harped on John for not losing weight. If McCargo can look anywhere near like in 07 on a consistent basis he will be an all pro.

[ghz in pittsburgh]

McCargo seems to be an enigma. We tried to get rid of him, but he couldn't pass the physical in Indy...disks in his back? I'm sure we are all aware of this. However, he is still on the roster, which says something I guess. We traded up to get him in the first round, as we all also know. I'd really like to know what's going on with HIM. He seems to be totally lost in the shuffle...no news at all. Is he going to play this year? In rotation maybe? We must have some hope for him on some level if he is still on the roster.

Anybody have any news on McCargo? This is the stuff Chris Brown should be talking about.

By the way, I really enjoyed your post LifetimeBillsFan. Seemed to make a lot of sense.

Mccargo is already in OBD working out as reported by Brown. In fact one the Bills round up video, they happen to show him jumping ropes in the field house.

I think I read somewhere that he's been here all winter working out.

[Tatonka]

that would be a huge huge addition if the Sanders can get something out of Mccargo and Ellis.. where was Sanders before?

[Jaybird]

that would be a huge huge addition if the Sanders can get something out of Mccargo and Ellis.. where was Sanders before?

Packers