Socci’s View: Patriots’ Elliss no longer on a special teams island
Minutes before presiding over the Patriots’ first padded practice of training camp, new head coach Jerod Mayo signaled an unsubtle change in how the team would configure its 53-man roster.
For years under Bill Belichick, the Pats carried a handful of players who neither kicked nor punted nor snapped but were used predominantly, if not solely on special teams, led by Matthew Slater. In 2023, this group of non-specialist specialists included Chris Board, Cody Davis, Brenden Schooler and Slater, who combined to play only four of the team’s 2,189 snaps on offense and defense. A fifth player, Christian Elliss, logged all 87 of his snaps in the season’s final month on special teams as well.
But by late July, when the Pats convened for training camp, Slater and Davis were retired and Board was released. And by their initial full-contact practice in early August, Schooler and Elliss were considered more than core special teamers.
Under the new roster management of player-personnel head Eliot Wolf and Mayo, everyone except the kicker, punter and long snapper is expected to lend offensive or defensive value to the team. Unless someone like Slater comes along, as Mayo told reporters in August, knowing full well that there have been few anyones like Slater, an all-time great, in NFL history.
“The more value you can bring to our roster and our team,” Mayo said, “that’s the important thing for us.”
His public comments echoed his private conversations.
“That’s the first thing Mayo told me this off-season,” Elliss said while readying at his locker before a recent practice. “He said ‘You’re here for defense and you (have) a special teams role. That is another part of you, but it doesn’t mean just a special teams guy.’
“Just being able to hear that from him and the trust he has in me…that was a blessing to hear.”
Elliss logged 119 plays at linebacker last year for Philadelphia before being exposed to waivers when the Eagles acquired veteran linebacker Shaq Leonard in December. Claimed by six teams, Elliss was awarded to the then 3-10 Patriots.
“We knew he had some good special teams tape out there,” Philly head coach Nick Sirianni told reporters, confirming the team’s intention to retain Elliss as part of its practice squad. “We were hoping to get him back.”
Belichick had seen Elliss on tape, and in person. On special teams, and on defense. In Philadelphia’s 25-20 season-opening win at Foxborough, Elliss made four tackles in 34 plays at linebacker.
On Sunday, he made his defensive debut as a Patriot, appearing for four plays after starter Ja’Whaun Bentley left the 23-20 overtime loss to Seattle with what we now know to be a torn pectoral muscle. Four nights later, facing the Jets in the Meadowlands, Elliss figures to receive more reps spelling Bentley’s replacement Raekwon McMillan.
His game has grown, Elliss believes, learning under Mayo and assistant coach Dont’a Hightower, both ex-Pat exemplars at his position.
“I shouldn’t say this (but) I wasn’t always a Patriots fan,” Ellis said, breaking into a smile. “I was always a Broncos and Lions guy, but I always admired the defense here.
“Obviously, you admire Brady too. But for my mentality, defense wins championships. And so the role that those two had here is a reason why (the Patriots) won so many Super Bowls.”
Already adept in the kicking game, Elliss says he devoted extra time and energy in the offseason and preseason to deepen his understanding of the Pats’ defensive concepts. It helped that unlike in his whirlwind month as a Patriot last winter, Elliss actually knew who he was addressing when posing questions to coaches and teammates.
“I actually know everybody’s names, where I’m not just saying ‘Hey, you,’” Elliss said, laughing as he pulled the laces of his cleats tighter. “That was probably the biggest difference from just getting here with four games left versus being able to spend the whole offseason with the team.”
Make that the biggest difference professionally. Personally, Elliss no longer lives as he did for four weeks last December and January – out of a single suitcase, housed in a Foxborough hotel and apart from his wife Kaysie and their two young kids, who were at home in Utah.
This season they’re all local. Son Koa, whose name in Samoan means “warrior,” is 2 ½ while his brother Elaia recently turned 1. Like their dad, the boys were born into a football family.
Luther Elliss was a defensive lineman drafted in the 1st-round out of the University of Utah in 1995. His career stretched across a decade from Detroit (nine seasons) to Denver (eight games in 2004) and included two Pro Bowls, three playoff appearances and 29 career sacks in 134 games.
His oldest of 12 children, Kaden, reached the NFL as a 7th-round selection of the Saints in 2019, and after four seasons in New Orleans is now in his second campaign as an Atlanta Falcon. Then came Christian, who followed Kaden to the University of Idaho before signing in Philadelphia as an undrafted free agent in 2021. Noah, another Idaho Vandal, also became an Eagle in 2022 and after an injury and practice-squad stint, was released last month. Then there is Jonah, who was chosen by the Broncos in the 3rd-round of April’s draft after earning consensus All-America honors last fall at Utah.
This weekend Christian will see his brothers play at Tampa Bay (Johah’s Broncos) and at home against Kansas City (Kaden’s Falcons).
Tonight they get to watch him vs. the Jets.
On kicking plays, of course. And very likely, other downs too.
Bob Socci is in his 12th season calling play-by-play for the Patriots Radio Network on 98.5 The Sports Hub.
