Saints DT Ellis excited to play on a defense with ‘no handcuffs'
 

METAIRIE, La. – For a decent portion of Sedrick Ellis’ first four years in the NFL, he has borne the brunt of criticism for being an underperformer, for not living up to his No. 7 overall pick status.

But you can’t blame Ellis completely for underperforming.

He has played with a rotating cast of characters on the interior of the defensive line – Remi Ayodele and Anthony Hargrove in 2009, Ayodele in 2010 and Shaun Rogers and Aubrayo Franklin in 2011.
He played for Gary Gibbs in 2008 and then under Gregg Williams from ’09-’11.

Now he’s under Steve Spagnuolo and, 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.”

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Saints DT Ellis excited to play on a defense with

Yea we will see. Don't like that he is blaming eyerthing on schemes. Think this is the year he has to prove something or he has be be a gonner. Quite frankly I am surprised he has lasted thid long.

I get what your saying but it really could be the schemes from past DCs that have hurt his production. Take Vilma for example. When he was with the Jets in the 3-4 he wasnt as effective as he was when he came to the Saints 4-3 scheme. Now Spags is using the same base scheme Ellis has been in but Spags' defense is more oriented on front 4 than exotic blitz. It all starts up front for Spags. Seem like GW was more focused on getting pressure from all different angles than keeping it simple and putting players in a position that suits their skill set and helps the succeed. Sometimes it seemed like GW was forcing the issue, trying to be too complex when really it just needed to be simple.

He better man up, the way he has played is not acceptable, cuts will come soon enough and he could get the ax at any time.

Our new DC is lighting these guys up, lovin' it.

It's the last year of his contract........he better pick it up or he's a goner next year. Possibly even this year as a cap casualty.

I hope he's happy. He hasn't looked like that since college.

Damn, everyone seems stoked for Spags. Very cool to see.

His head coaching foray aside, Spags DC track record speaks for itself. We certainly can't claim the DL talent he had in his Giants days, but there's some promising players here. Just wish those players could stay healthy ...

Spagnoulo seems to get the most from his D-Line no matter what the level of talent we have. He is a very good teacher...

New contract asperations can be a good motivator.
Ellis has played OK but for most people, 1st rounders are suppose to be alittle better than OK.
I know that I have had higher expectations for him.
I would love to see him EARN a nice deal.

when you blitz that much from the secondary the DL has to play a lot of containment.

i am looking forward to straight ahead defense