Kaden Elliss is an underrated New Orleans Saints free agent, having broken out in 2022 with career-highs in defensive snaps played (632), quarterback pressures (20, 8 of them sacks per Pro Football Focus charting), and tackles (45), along with a pair of fumbles.
The veteran linebacker has been a top special teams player for the Saints ever since they drafted him out of Idaho back in 2019, and now the former sixth-round pick is looking to establish himself as a starter — somewhere around the league.
“I’d love to be back,” Elliss told The Spun’s Chris Rosvoglou. “They’ve made it clear they want me back. It’ll come down to the numbers and scheme. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
That makes sense. If Elliss gets a competitive offer in free agency, he owes it to himself to take it — this is his first shot at a life-changing NFL payday. And unless the Saints introduce drastic scheme changes to field three or more linebackers on most of their defensive snaps (they overwhelmingly prefer to run nickel personnel with an extra defensive back instead), he’ll have more opportunities to get on the field elsewhere.
So if another team is willing to pay more than New Orleans or give Elliss more snaps than he’d see with the Saints, he’s gone. It’s a similar situation to what happened with Al-Quadin Muhammad, Vonn Bell, and Sheldon Rankins in recent years. They were all squeezed out of the roster by a combination of other viable players at the position and stronger contract offers with other teams.
With Demario Davis and Pete Werner expected to play the majority of snaps at linebacker for the Saints in 2023, there isn’t much of a role for Elliss. He’s not going to displace either of them in the fall. And New Orleans needs to see something from backup linebackers coming off of injuries like Zack Baun and D’Marco Jackson. Those same injury histories are reason for an investment at the position, but it’s hard to justify paying Davis and Elliss both like starting-quality players if only one of them is going to be on the field at a time.
Hopefully things work out to where Elliss can return. He played his role well and deserves bigger opportunities. Davis will probably be hanging up his cleats in two or three years (he turned 34 in January) and being patient could pay off for No. 55. At the same time, it’s hard to tell him to just be patient and wait his turn when careers in the NFL can be so fleeting.
