Bradley Handwerger / WWLTV.com Sports Reporter...

...if you listen to Ellis closely, it sounds like he’s excited to play more now than he has in the recent past.

“The scheme started to become a little bit tough on the linemen just because of the way we had to play,” Ellis said. “Don’t get me wrong, the scheme worked as far as scheme goes. But in my opinion, this defense is a little bit more geared to putting the guys in a good position and letting them go play football as opposed to Gregg’s defense where he tried to win games with scheme.”

According to Aaron Schatz of FootballOutsiders.com, the Saints used a 4-3 in 47 percent of their defensive plays a season ago, the rest being a mix of defenses, including several with three-man fronts.

On Wednesday, acting head coach Joe Vitt stressed that the Saints would play a pressure front with zone coverage in the secondary. In other words, Ellis said he’ll get the opportunity to make plays now.

But that’s contingent on he and his defensive line teammates working together, something he said they didn’t have to do under Williams.

“Everybody knew where they had to be and it was kind of every man for himself type of deal,” Ellis said. “With this new scheme we have to work together as a defensive line. We have to be a unit. … That being put into consideration, we better learn how to work together pretty quickly and be good at it because this defensive scheme, the defensive line is really where it starts.”

“Ready to prove to ourselves that we’re a great four-man defensive line and we can play with the best of them and we have the personnel,” Ellis said. “We have good players and great coaches. I’m looking forward to doing that with no handcuffs.”