Sedrick Ellis
 Ellis on the sidelines while playing for Southern California | |||||||||
| New Orleans Saints | |||||||||
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| Career information | |||||||||
| College: | Southern California | ||||||||
| NFL draft: | 2008 / round: 1 / pick: 7 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
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| Roster status: | Active | ||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics as of Week 17, 2008 | |||||||||
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Sedrick Ellis (born May 9, 1985 in Template:City-state) is an American football defensive tackle for the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Saints seventh overall in the 2008 NFL Draft. He played college football at Southern California.
Early years
Ellis prepped at Chino High School. Although, he attended Chino High, Ellis and his family resided in Chino, California. While at Chino High he was involved with teams that went to back to back CIF TITLE GAMES 2000-2001. Ellis along with teammate Chris Mcfoy who was on these Chino teams are currently both in the NFL. While in high school Ellis played DT and FB on goaline situations.
College career
As an underclassman, Ellis learned under first team All-American Mike Patterson[1] Ellis finished his redshirt junior season at the University of Southern California during the 2006 season. He was first team coaches and rivals.com All-Pac-10 conference, First-team College Football News All-America team and won the Morris Trophy. Ellis had been considering making the jump to the National Football League in the 2007 NFL Draft but decided to come back for his senior season and would go pro in 2008; part of his decision to stay was tied to fellow classmate and highly touted defensive lineman Lawrence Jackson.
Ellis was a CBS Sportsline, Sporting News, Lindy's and Street and Smiths preseason All-American for 2007. He was also on the Bednarik Award, Lombardi Trophy, Lott Trophy and Outland Trophy watch lists for 2007. Bench pressing more than 500 pounds, he is the strongest player on the Trojans roster and was named one of the "Pac-10's Top 10 Players" by Sports Illustrated going into the 2007 season.[2] At the end of the 2007 season, Ellis was voted the Pacific 10 Conference Defensive Player of the Year by league coaches, and selected to the All-Conference first team.[3]
Ellis was selected to the majority of All-America First-teams, including those by the Associated Press, SI.com,Rivals.com, AFCA, Walter Camp Football Foundation, FWAA and Sporting News.[4][5]
Career statistics
| Year | G | GS | TAC | T/L | Sacks | DFL | FR |
| 2004 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2005 | 13 | 13 | 50 | 8 | 4.5 | 3 | 0 |
| 2006 | 10 | 10 | 34 | 8 | 4.5 | 4 | 2 |
| 2007 | 13 | 13 | 58 | 12.5 | 8.5 | 7 | 2 |
| Totals | 47 | 36 | 144 | 28.5 | 17.5 | 14 | 4 |
Key: G - Games played; GS - Games started; TAC - Total Tackles; T/L - Tackles for loss; Sacks - Quarterback sacks; DFL - Deflected passes; FR - Fumbles Recovered
Professional career
Pre-draft
| Pre-draft measureables | ||||||||||
| Ht | Wt | 40-yard dash | 10-yd split | 20-yd split | 20 ss | 3-cone | Vert | Broad | BP | Wonderlic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6-0½ * | 305 lb ** | 5.05 * | 1.84 * | 3.07 * | 4.74 * | 7.79 * | 32½ in. ** | 8'8" * | 36 ** | X |
(* represents NFL Combine ** represents USC Pro Day.)[6]
Bench Press: 440 lb (200 kg); Squat: 560 lb (250 kg)
[7]
New Orleans Saints
Ellis was drafted by the New Orleans Saints seventh overall in the 2008 NFL Draft. The Saints original draft spot was 10th, but they traded up with the New England Patriots. The teams swapped first round picks, the Saints gave up their third round selection (78th) and the Pats gave back their fifth round selection (164th).[8] The Patriots used the tenth pick to select linebacker Jerod Mayo.
Initially, New Orleans attempted to trade up for LSU DT Glenn Dorsey, whom they had valued slightly higher than Ellis. They had purportedly offered a deal to the Kansas City Chiefs which included their first- and second-round picks and their first-round pick in the 2009 NFL Draft[9] but the Chiefs decided to draft Dorsey instead.
In New Orleans, Ellis was reunited with Saints defensive line coach Ed Orgeron, who was his assistant coach at USC for his freshman year and responsible for recruiting him. Extended negotiations over contract details, not uncommon with high draft picks, led the defensive tackle to miss six days and 12 practices of training camp until a contract was agreed to on July 29. His initial five-year contact is worth a maximum value of $49 million, with $19.5 million in guarantees; however portions are based on hard-to-reach incentives that may bring the realized value of the agreement lower.[10]
Personal
Although Ellis was the strongest person on the 2007 Trojans and only the third player under Pete Carroll's Trojan tenure to lift over 500 lb (230 kg), he had only started lifting weights since he was 15 (6 years as of 2007) because his father would not allow him to lift at a younger age.[11] In addition to benching a team-best 510 lb (230 kg), at the 2007 spring pro day Ellis hoisted 225 lb 42 times.[1] Because of his strength, the Trojans had to purchase a set of 200-pound dumbbells for their weight room just to accommodate him (the previous high were 160s); Ellis would do sets of eight reps on the incline bench with the 200s.[12] Ellis has a pet Rottweiler named Junior.[1]
In late 2008 Ellis moved to New Orleans and adopted a Dogo Argentino puppy named Legend Sampson.
When Ellis was in high school before football he was involed with gangs and had behavior problems. While at chino high they made him have lunch at Pete Merandi (a football coach at the school) because of his behavior. After a week a week or so Merandi talked to, he asked him why he was there. Ellis said becasue he didnt like whites. Merandi said well im white so you dont like me. Ellis said No i like you you dont take crap. So Merandi challnged him and said "i bet you cant make though one of my football pratices. Ellis accepeted the challnge. Ellis became a star on the team. Merandi took Ellis to night school to rasie his grades so he could go to college. He did so and earned a scholarship from USC.
References
- ^ a b c Bud Withers, USC's Ellis will be dominating presence, Seattle Times, September 26, 2007.
- ^ Pac-10's Top 10 Players: 4 Sedrick Ellis, DT, Sr. | USC, SI.com, Accessed August 21, 2007.
- ^ Pac-10 Football Awards and All-Conference Team Announced, Pacific 10 Conference, December 3, 2007.
- ^ Ralph D. Russo, McFadden, Tebow Lead AP All-America Team, Associated Press, December 11, 2007.
- ^ SI.com's All-Americas, SI.com, December 11, 2007.
- ^ Kansas City Star.com
- ^ Kansas City Star.com
- ^ Saints trade up, draft Ellis - New Orleans Saints Beat - Times-Picayune NFL - NOLA.com
- ^ 2theadvocate.com | Sheldon Mickles | Mickles: Orgeron reunited with Ellis — Baton Rouge, LA
- ^ Mike Triplett, Saints, Ellis agree to five-year deal, The Times-Picayune, July 29, 2008, Accessed July 31, 2008.
- ^ Mark Saxon, Ellis a monster in the middle of USC defense, The Orange County Register, August 18, 2007.
- ^ Bruce Feldman, Trojans' defense respects but doesn't fear Illini attack, ESPN the Magazine, December 31, 2007.