Sedrick Ellis

Sedrick Ellis was born on May 9, 1985 in Chino, California and is currently 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, CA High School. Although, he attended Chino High, Sedrick and his family resides in Pomona, CA in the Westmont area.

2006 season
As an underclassman, Ellis learned under first team All-American Mike Patterson Ellis finished his redshirt junior season at the University of Southern California during the 2006-2007 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.

2007 season
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 Award, 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. 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.

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.

Statistics
Key: G - Games played; GS - Games started; TAC - Total Tackles; T/L - Tackles for loss; Sacks - Quarterback sacks; DFL - Deflected passes; FR - Fumbles Recovered

NFL Combine
Height: 6'0-1/2" Weight: 298 lb

40-yard time: 5.05; 20-yard time: 3.07; 10-yard time: 1.84

Verticle jump: 30"; Broad jump: 8'8"; Short shuttle: 4.74; 3-cone drill: 7.79

225-pound bench press: 34 reps

USC Pro Day
Height: 6'0-1/2" Weight: 305 lb

40-yard time: 5.02

Verticle jump: 32.5"

Bench Press: 440 lb; Squat: 560 lb

225-pound bench press: 36 reps

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 felt the need to trade up 3 spots to the New England Patriots. The teams swapped first round picks, the Saints gave up their 3rd round selection (78th) and the Pats gave back their fifth round selection (164th). The Patriots used the tenth pick to select linebacker Jerod Mayo.

Entering the draft, 2 of the Saints biggest needs were widely regarded to be defensive tackle and nose tackle. The versatile Ellis can fill both.

Initially, New Orleans attempted to trade up for LSU DT Glenn Dorsey, who they had valued slightly higher than Ellis. They had purportedly offered a deal to the Kansas City Chiefs which included their first and second 2008 selections and their first round pick in the 2009 NFL Draft but the Chiefs decided to draft Dorsey instead. When Ellis fell to the seventh pick they decided to jump the Bengals - who too were set on Ellis or Dorsey, and the Ravens.

In New Orleans, Ellis will be reunited with Coach Ed Orgeron, who was his assistant coach at USC for his freshman year and responsible for recruiting him. Orgeron will also be responsible for Ellis' professional developemnt as the defensive line coach. He will also be reaquainted with former USC teammate and Heisman trophy winner Reggie Bush.

In the fifth round, the Saints selected another defensive tackle, DeMario Pressley of North Carolina State.

Sedrick impressed in OTAs and was said to be looking like the disruptive force the Saints had drafted him to be. . He will likely replace Hollis Thomas at the nose tackle spot in the 4-3 defense, lining up next to Brian Young and opening up gaps for high priced defensive end tandem Will Smith and Charles Grant to rush the passer.

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, 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. In addition to benching a team-best 510 lb, at the 2007 spring pro day Ellis hoisted 225 lb 42 times. 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. Ellis has a pet Rottweiler named Junior.