Chris Ellis

[elltrain22]

WTF is up w/ this guy?? He was a 3rd round pick last year, granted a stupid choice, but I digress. Is he a camp casualty, is he an up and comer, is he still hurt, or should we not have any hope at all for him?? No one ever really talks about him, so I'd like to hear any news we have on the kid.

Thanks

[THATHURMANATOR]

I think he will get a good chance to contribute this season. I assume Kelsey will be cut opening a spot for him.

[TigerJ]

He was not ready for the pro game last year, but he's got good upside, and the areas where he lacked (strength and technique) were areas he had a a chance to improve drastically from a year ago. We've been led to believe he's worked a lot and has made great strides. There's good reason to believe he'll make a solid contribution this year, and that expectation may be part of the reason the Bills were shopping Kelsay and Denney before the draft.

[Buckets]

He was not ready for the pro game last year, but he's got good upside, and the areas where he lacked (strength and technique) were areas he had a a chance to improve drastically from a year ago. We've been led to believe he's worked a lot and has made great strides. There's good reason to believe he'll make a solid contribution this year, and that expectation may be part of the reason the Bills were shopping Kelsay and Denney before the draft.

This may be a stupid question but exactly why do so many prospects need help with their technique. They have for the most part been playing football for 4 yrs of high school and 4 yrs of college, isn't technique a basic part of learning the game? Why do they have to learn technique at this point in their career?

[psubills62]

He was not ready for the pro game last year, but he's got good upside, and the areas where he lacked (strength and technique) were areas he had a a chance to improve drastically from a year ago. We've been led to believe he's worked a lot and has made great strides. There's good reason to believe he'll make a solid contribution this year, and that expectation may be part of the reason the Bills were shopping Kelsay and Denney before the draft.

It could also be one of the reasons that they didn't take more than one DE in the draft this year, like I expected them to.

I agree with TigerJ; the Bills seem to have confidence that he will make significant strides in his game this year. I also wonder if they think the hiring of DL coach Bob Sanders is going to help our young DE's, like Maybin, Ellis and Copeland Bryan.

[psubills62]

This may be a stupid question but exactly why do so many prospects need help with their technique. They have for the most part been playing football for 4 yrs of high school and 4 yrs of college, isn't technique a basic part of learning the game? Why do they have to learn technique at this point in their career?

Probably because up to this point, they've been dominating mostly based on their superior athleticism. Even in college, there's serious talent disparity between the players who will go pro, and those who won't. Guys like Chris Ellis could dominate because they were faster than the tackles they faced. In the NFL, they can't just dominate with athleticism because everyone's athletic, especially the tackles. Thus, they need to polish technique and gain a larger repertoire of moves.

[TedMock]

This may be a stupid question but exactly why do so many prospects need help with their technique. They have for the most part been playing football for 4 yrs of high school and 4 yrs of college, isn't technique a basic part of learning the game? Why do they have to learn technique at this point in their career?

This is from my own personal experience and at a far lesser level of competition. When I coached junior-high I found that the kids with the most athletic ability had a tendency to ignore technique in many instances. We would teach and teach and the pure athleticism allowed them to get away with it. The lesser athletes were far more willing to accept the teaching and became better players based on technique alone. While these guys all go to good football programs in college and are forced into learning technique, I think it's a matter of old habits die hard. At the pro-level there is just no getting around it because now every single guy is an elite athlete. Technique wins. It's a matter of breaking old habits and holding the player accountable to refining his game.

[Mr. Pink]

Hopefully we something positive from the guy on the field this year.

[Captain gameboy]

I think the Ellis situation is the first thing resolved at training camp this year.

It shouldn't take more than a week to figure out which of these DE's is gone.

[Tatonka]

This may be a stupid question but exactly why do so many prospects need help with their technique. They have for the most part been playing football for 4 yrs of high school and 4 yrs of college, isn't technique a basic part of learning the game? Why do they have to learn technique at this point in their career?

im sure someone has already answered this.. but i can tell you with ellis since i watched all of his college games.

ellis has a great 1st step and great speed off the corner. he wasn't an overly strong guy, but in college, he didnt HAVE to use a huge set of moves to get to the qb or ball carrier.. he got by on pure athletic abillity.. just like a lot of prospects do. what he has is idea size and speed for the position. Strength and technique, for most positions, is one of the last things they look at because it is stuff that can be taught and worked on.. where as speed and overall size are not so much. you either woke up at 6'4" or you didn't.

i still do believe that ellis will be a good player. he needed to work on some things and was hurt, but the front office would not be looking to move kelsay or denny unless they had faith that he would contribute. he might suprise many of you.

just my 2 cents.

[Dying_-2-_Live]

I see potential when I watch him play. If he adds about 15 lbs of weight, he could be a solid DE in a year or two

[mchurchfie]

Kelsay and Denney need to go. They have both been given plenty of time and chances to step it up and have been barely adequate. Time to cut our losses and move on. Marv ****ed up when he gave all of that money to Kelsay.

[Tatonka]

5 years for 25 mill to kelsay doesnt look bad at all now in comparison to what some of these idiots are getting.

[Italian Stallion]

I actually have high hopes for ellis. He and Maybin could be a nice late game combo of speed rushers for the oposition to have to deal with

Kelsay can go ahead and get cut....Denney is more valuable than him because of his 6'7 frame...he could slide inside to DT if desperate, and hes much stronger than "captian" Kelsay

[ddaryl]

Kelsay and Denney need to go. They have both been given plenty of time and chances to step it up and have been barely adequate. Time to cut our losses and move on. Marv ****ed up when he gave all of that money to Kelsay.


unless we replace them with players that will actually play better then them, we are going to keep them.

We're better off leaving them on the rorster and hope Maybin and Ellsion earns the bulk of the playing time.

[kid mickey]

I still think we are gonna need another DE next year. Greg Romeus anyone?

[FlyingDutchman]

He was just as good as the Jets 1st overall pick

[FlyingDutchman]

I still think we are gonna need another DE next year. Greg Romeus anyone?

George Selvie, been watching and wanting this kid since the begining of his sophmore year

[ddaryl]

I still think we are gonna need another DE next year. Greg Romeus anyone?


we're going to need ot look at DL and LB next year

possibly OT too..

but if they keep grabbing high quality players on the lines and LB this team will transfrom into a winner

[TigerJ]

It could also be one of the reasons that they didn't take more than one DE in the draft this year, like I expected them to.

I agree with TigerJ; the Bills seem to have confidence that he will make significant strides in his game this year. I also wonder if they think the hiring of DL coach Bob Sanders is going to help our young DE's, like Maybin, Ellis and Copeland Bryan.

Bob Sanders is very different for the last two defensive line coaches Buffalo has had. Both Tim Krumrie and Bill Kollar were screamers, who yelled a lot at players and relied on emotion. Bob Sanders is much more of a teacher with a calm demeanor. He's a lot more like Dick Jauron in that respect. Maybe that's wghat the Bills need right now. It's clear they weren't geting great results from the screamers.

[Raptor]

Where is C.Brown on stuff like this?

We havent had a single Ellis update all offseason nor have we had any reports on how D.Bell strength training is coming along because that was his number one negative coming out of college w/ only 9 reps. I'd like to know if they ever tested him again at 225 to see how far he's come

[elltrain22]

Where is C.Brown on stuff like this?

We havent had a single Ellis update all offseason nor have we had any reports on how D.Bell strength training is coming along because that was his number one negative coming out of college w/ only 9 reps. I'd like to know if they ever tested him again at 225 to see how far he's come

What else is new. IMO, Chris Brown is a very poor reporter. I get all my Bills news from Pat & Coach Sal, not Chris Brown.

[LifetimeBillsFan]

This may be a stupid question but exactly why do so many prospects need help with their technique. They have for the most part been playing football for 4 yrs of high school and 4 yrs of college, isn't technique a basic part of learning the game? Why do they have to learn technique at this point in their career?

Let me add one more thing to what has already been said on this:

In addition to guys relying on their superior athleticism to get by in college, most DEs only learn one or two moves in college and don't have to learn counter-moves to use when those moves don't work or how to set up a blocker on one play so that he will be vulnerable on another, more important down.

In the NFL, however, they are going against professionals--guys who already have seen all of the moves that they have and know how to negate them; guys who aren't going to fall for that one feint/counter-move that they may have in their arsenal; guys with a punch strong enough to stop their bull-rush.

As a result, a lot of guys have to not only add moves to their bag-of-tricks, but learn how to use them in combinations, like a boxer has to learn how to put together a jab-straight right hand-left hook combination, that can work and that he can execute. Very often guys have to get stronger and/or learn how to get off the line quicker without tipping the moves that they are going to use (believe it or not, there are guys who don't get themselves lined up properly on a consistent basis because it didn't matter in college).

There are a lot of things that guys coming out of college still have to learn how to do properly that can make them much better players in their second season in the NFL than they will be as rookies. Mario Williams is a perfect example of how even a top flight guy coming out of college who is able to perform reasonably well as a rookie can get even better in his second year. And, Chris Ellis had a lot further to go coming out of college than Mario Williams (which is not to say that he will become as good as Williams, either).

Make sense?

[Yasgur's Farm]

I think Ellis will make a solid contribution to the DE rotation this season... We'll obviously see a lot of Maybin as well.

It doesn't look good for Kelsay or Denney unless Schobel can't answer the bell.

[TonyBlack]

if aaron schobel gets hurt again, we probably will see maybin starting and ellis making some 3rd down plays.

[kid mickey]

Maybin is going to be in at LE. I think Ellis is the rotational guy who gives guys a breather. We need a guy to replace Schobel next year.

[acehole]

You had to have been voted talks most says least in school.




Let me add one more thing to what has already been said on this:

In addition to guys relying on their superior athleticism to get by in college, most DEs only learn one or two moves in college and don't have to learn counter-moves to use when those moves don't work or how to set up a blocker on one play so that he will be vulnerable on another, more important down.

In the NFL, however, they are going against professionals--guys who already have seen all of the moves that they have and know how to negate them; guys who aren't going to fall for that one feint/counter-move that they may have in their arsenal; guys with a punch strong enough to stop their bull-rush.

As a result, a lot of guys have to not only add moves to their bag-of-tricks, but learn how to use them in combinations, like a boxer has to learn how to put together a jab-straight right hand-left hook combination, that can work and that he can execute. Very often guys have to get stronger and/or learn how to get off the line quicker without tipping the moves that they are going to use (believe it or not, there are guys who don't get themselves lined up properly on a consistent basis because it didn't matter in college).

There are a lot of things that guys coming out of college still have to learn how to do properly that can make them much better players in their second season in the NFL than they will be as rookies. Mario Williams is a perfect example of how even a top flight guy coming out of college who is able to perform reasonably well as a rookie can get even better in his second year. And, Chris Ellis had a lot further to go coming out of college than Mario Williams (which is not to say that he will become as good as Williams, either).

Make sense?