Its an old story, but quite often I completely forget to check in at the official site. Player Q&A: Shaun Ellis Published: 07-08-09 Jets Staff By Jets Staff How did you get the "Big Katt" nickname? I actually got it from a college teammate [at Tennessee]. I made a play ? got to the quarterback and chased down the screen. And he was like, "Oh, you?re quick like a cat." And he just started calling me "Big Katt" from then on. Lane Kiffin is making his presence felt throughout the SEC at your old school. What do you think about that? It?s good. I like it. It?s good to beef up that tradition again in the SEC with Alabama, Florida and Georgia, counting back to the days when we were there. Do you take care of your body differently now, at 31, than you did when you entered the NFL? Yeah, of course. Yeah, I just get a little massage and a little bit more therapy, hot tub, steam room ? things like that. You need to play in just eight more games to have played more games than any other D-lineman in franchise history. How does that make you feel? I didn?t know that. I guess it?s a good accomplishment. It?s good. The team is headed in a new direction with Rex Ryan as head coach. What do you think about him? I like him. He?s a straightforward guy. He loves to have fun and the team believes in him. We have a great system, so it?s going to be fun. He causes a lot of controversy from what people say. It?s a good thing. It gives us that extra "oomph" that we need. Have you always watched the Ravens? defense and respected what they?ve done from afar? Oh, yeah, anytime you want to watch a defensive team you look at the Ravens. Now that we have him as our coach, I can see why they were playing like that. You?ve played in six playoffs games but haven?t been to the dance in the past couple of seasons. How bad are you itching to get back to the postseason? Oh, yeah, very much. You want to just have the opportunity to be a part of it, and then just go as far as we can and hopefully get to the big show. Quietly, you had a real nice season last season in the sack category with eight sacks. How challenging is it to put up big sack numbers in a 3-4 front? It?s very challenging because mostly you?re doing a three-man rush and you get double-teamed a lot. It?s a lot more fighting and clawing in the 3-4 to get the sacks. Do you think you?ll get moved around a bit more this year? It looks that way. We?ll have a little bit more freedom this year. The Dolphins are defending division champs, but the Patriots get Tom Brady back. Is New England the team to beat in the division? Yeah, New England is still the team to beat, but Miami is a great team. You can?t take that away from them and Buffalo is strong too, so it?s going to be a tight race. Who?s the most talented player you?ve played with and against? Played with? I?d have to say Abraham ? John Abraham :drunk:. Most talented player I?ve played against? I?d have to say LaDainian Tomlinson.
Whats the best bud you ever smoked? Best bud? Wow, that's a tough one. Probably columian gold i got off Ricky Williams once. Man that dude got some excellent tree.
What's the best head you ever got from a stripper? Oh, man, I'd have to say that Kylie from scores three years ago was phenomenal, man. She did everything: worked the shaft, licked and kissed my head a little, had my balls all up in her mouth. She even licked my o-ring a little bit which was kind of weird but it was pretty chill.
If the Jets have a dominant season on defense next year Ellis will probably be the second strongest contributor to that after Kris Jenkins. It's no accident that Ellis had a career year, for a 3-4 end, right after getting a primetime nose tackle to play next to. He's a good 3-4 end who has been lost in Mangini's weird system.
Two words: muddle huddle. Ellis is still athletic and quick enough to move around on the line, and in the backfield. Keep Ellis moving so no one o-lineman can key on him and he's going to make a huge contribution in the pass rush.
I miss the muddle huddle. Our 2006 defense wrought some serious destruction with that. The 3 man rush out of the muddle huddle actually worked because the offense would audible into max protect whenever they saw our defense using the muddle huddle. This is what I don't get about the Mangini/Sutton defense: In 2006 and 2007, there was this great constant innovation. Things changed all of the time and it made the players look better than they were. In 2008 Mangini/Sutton got better players and stopped innovating. The same happened with the offense. The 2007 Schottenheimer offense used shifts just like the 2006 offense, though not nearly as many. The 2008 Schottenheimer offense was nothing like the past two years' offenses, but showed flashes in the Titans and Pats games of a consistent play style. If you watch the Titans and Patriots games from last year, you'll notice something really cool about the offense: Out of the same formation, several different plays would have the same initial motions, making it so that the defense could never predict what play we were running. There were quick hand offs to the tailback running a dive where Favre extended the ball one way then turned to the other, kind of a counter with the QB as opposed to the RB. The play action out of this, the pump fake off the play action, hell it even turned into a screen on one play. They ran quick passes off of this initial motion and long passes out of this initial motion. Defenses couldn't read the plays and they worked a huge percentage of the time. Then that changed. We didn't see plays or innovation like that down the stretch when the Jets were losing. (Actually, we did see the introduction of fullback runs for a short period during the Seahawks game that were ridiculously effective and the offense stopped using them for no apparent reason) I remember an article back in (I think) 2007 that quoted Ellis as saying that Sutton trusted the players to help design the defense, and the muddle huddle was attributed to Ellis in that article. You didn't see that in 2008. I think that there was a serious disconnect in 2008. Whether it was Favre, Mangini, the players, whatever: It seemed like the team fell apart. The end of last season still baffles the shit out of me. The Jets were so damn inconsistent in 2008, I don't think I know which Jets to expect in 2009. If Schottenheimer can get on his game and innovate like he has in the past, then I feel that the offense can click even without premier receivers. The big thing with Rex Ryan is the innovation on defense, and I think that with innovation returning to the defense, the players will make a lot of big plays and the defense as a whole will have the ability to be a dominant unit. On the other hand, if Schottenheimer's schemes are stale once again, the offense will inevitably become one dimensional and easier for other teams to shut down. With little to no experience in Ryan's new scheme, the defense can't afford to have to pick up after the offense. I can't foresee an in between for the Jets in 2009. It really comes down to Schotty: If he can become more consistent like he was in 2006 while maintaining the innovation he brought in spurts during 2007 and 2008, then the Jets can be an extremely competitive team both in the division and the conference. They can be what everyone was talking about them being after the Titans game last year. If Schotty can't pull that off, though, then I don't see good things for the Jets, at least for the first 3/4 of the season, with the end of the season becoming a rally for momentum to bring into 2010. Think SF at the end of last year, winning 4 of their last 5.
I remember that article too, I think it actually included Hobson with Ellis as the sources for the muddle huddle.
:rofl: He's half a season away from setting the record for most games played as a Jet DLineman, and some still spell his name wrong...
