HEADLINES

Justin Ellis

Minor NFL Transactions: 8/26/23

August 26th, 2023 at 10:33pm CST by Adam La Rose

Saturday’s minor moves:

Atlanta Falcons

Detroit Lions

Los Angeles Rams

Philadelphia Eagles

San Francisco 49ers

Mayfield missed all of last season due to injury, but he started each the 16 games in his rookie campaign the year prior. The former 23-year-old struggled at guard, which prompted a change in plans for the Falcons on the interior. They tried Mayfield at tackle this offseason, but that has clearly not gone according to plan given today’s move. It will be interesting to see if Atlanta tries to keep him in the fold via the practice squad if that option presents itself next week.

Covington, 29, could have provided experienced depth along the defensive interior for the Lions had he made the 53-man roster. The former sixth-rounder has 102 games to his name, including 20 with the Chargers over the past two years. Covington has also spent time with the Texans, Cowboys and Bengals, collecting 196 tackles and 9.5 sacks. He will now have a slight head start on many other players with respect to finding a new home as teams sort through their final roster decisions.

Falcons To Add DT Justin Ellis; DT Eddie Goldman Again Considering Retirement

July 28th, 2023 at 5:32pm CST by Sam Robinson

Justin Ellis will have a chance to play a 10th NFL season soon. After working out for the Falcons on Friday, the veteran defensive tackle will sign with the team, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets.

The Falcons have a bit of an issue at D-tackle, with Arthur Smith confirming (via Falcons.com’s Scott Bair) Friday that the recently unretired Eddie Goldman is once again considering walking away. A 2022 signing, Goldman retired soon after joining the Falcons but reconsidered earlier this year. The longtime Bears starter rejoined the team in March and, per Smith (via The Athletic’s Josh Kendall), looked “phenomenal” upon reporting to camp this week.

Atlanta has been active in D-line moves this offseason, signing Calais Campbell and David Onyemata. Campbell has a long history of playing as an inside defender, but the 16th-year veteran is expected to be used as more of an edge presence. The Falcons also drafted D-lineman Zach Harrison in the third round.

Goldman is a nose tackle by trade. He served in that capacity for the Bears for six seasons, with a 2020 opt-out interrupting a successful tenure. The Bears gave Goldman a four-year, $42MM extension during the 2018 offseason, and he was part of a Vic Fangio-led defense that led the league while helping the team to a 12-4 record. Goldman, 29, has yet to play for the Falcons, but the team has given the veteran D-tackle multiple opportunities.

Ellis, 32, could be a contingency plan. The former Raiders draft choice has logged 117 career games, serving as a run-defending presence. After five seasons in Oakland, Ellis caught on with Baltimore during Don Martindale‘s time as DC. Ellis ended up following Martindale to New York last year, playing Giants games and starting four. Pro Football Focus assigned him a career-worst grade, but the former fourth-round pick has remained on the NFL radar.

After the Raiders gave him a three-year, $13.5MM deal in 2018, Ellis signed one-year deals from 2019-22. This agreement likely runs that streak of one-season pacts to five.

Giants Sign DT Justin Ellis

March 23rd, 2022 at 5:26pm CST by Ben Levine

Justin Ellis is heading to the NFC. The defensive tackle is signing with the Giants, reports NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport (via Twitter). Ellis is inking a one-year deal.

The 2014 fourth-round pick spent the first five-plus seasons of his career with the Raiders, earning All-Rookie Team honors in 2014. Ellis found himself in and out of the starting lineup during his stint with the Raiders, as he started 42 of his 66 games. This included a 2017 campaign where he started 14 of his 16 games and finished with 48 tackles and 0.5 sacks.

Ellis joined the Ravens in 2019 and ended up inking three separate contracts with the team. During his three seasons in Baltimore, the defensive lineman compiled 41 tackles while starting eight of his 34 games.

He’ll already have some familiarity with New York’s defensive system. Ellis played under current Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale when the two were in Baltimore.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/15/21

September 15th, 2021 at 5:07pm CST by Ben Levine

Today’s minor NFL transactions:

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Ravens

Denver Broncos

Houston Texans

Las Vegas Raiders

New Orleans Saints

New York Jets

Tennessee Titans

Wednesday NFL Transactions: AFC North

September 1st, 2021 at 6:15pm CST by Sam Robinson

Following the 53-man roster cutdown deadline Tuesday, many teams will make slight tweaks to their rosters. In addition to waiver claims, teams can begin constructing their 16-man practice squads today. These Bengals, Browns, Ravens and Steelers moves are noted below.

Here are Wednesday’s AFC North transactions, which will continue to be updated throughout the day.

Baltimore Ravens

Signed to practice squad:

Cincinnati Bengals

Claimed:

Released:

Waived:

Signed to practice squad:

Cleveland Browns

Signed:

Placed on IR:

Signed to practice squad:

Pittsburgh Steelers

Signed to practice squad:

Ravens Reduce Roster To 53

August 31st, 2021 at 4:30pm CST by Ben Levine

The Ravens cut down their roster to 53 players today, with the team making the following transactions:

Released

Waived/Injured

Placed on Reserve/NFI

The team also announced a handful of previously reported transactions, which you can find here.

Obviously Pernell and Levine are the two major names on this list, but there’s a chance the veterans land back in Baltimore once the team places a handful of players on IR.

Pernell spent the past two seasons in Baltimore, starting 20 of his 22 appearances. In those 22 games, the 32-year-old collected 53 tackles and six sacks. The veteran also started his career with the Ravens before bouncing between the Bears and Washington. Levine, meanwhile, isn’t a stranger to bouncing on and off the Ravens roster, but he’s still managed to miss only one regular season game for the organization since 2013. That missed game actually came in 2020, when the special teams ace finished with only seven tackles.

Ravens To Extend DT Justin Ellis

March 3rd, 2021 at 3:56pm CST by Sam Robinson

Justin Ellis reached an agreement Wednesday to stay with the Ravens. The veteran defensive tackle will remain in Baltimore on a one-year deal, veteran NFL reporter Josina Anderson tweets.

The former Raiders draftee will earn $1.2MM on his latest Ravens accord; $400K of that is guaranteed, per Anderson. This marks Ellis’ third Ravens pact. This one will mark a slight bump from the 2020 contract Ellis inked.

Initially arriving in Baltimore as a late-season addition in 2019, Ellis re-signed to stay in Maryland last March. He played in 13 games in 2020 and started three, serving as a key role player for the Ravens. Ellis’ age-30 season included a 34% defensive snap rate — his highest usage since the 2017 slate.

The Raiders ended Ellis’ five-plus-year stay in 2019, reaching an injury settlement with him midway through the season. The team had previously signed him to a three-year extension. The former fourth-round pick has done well to craft a rebound effort with the Ravens.

Contract Details: Falcons, Ryan, Eagles, Slay

March 25th, 2020 at 10:55am CST by Zachary Links

Earlier this week, the Falcons restructured deals with Matt Ryan and others to carve out a bit of extra breathing room. Today, we got some additional details on that adjustment, via Vaughn McClure of ESPN.com (on Twitter).

Here’s the breakdown: Ryan’s base pay for 2020 will go down from $8MM to $1.05MM. Meanwhile, tackle Jake Matthews will see his base number trimmed from $10.55MM to $3.55MM. In both cases, the difference was converted to a signing bonus. In effect, it doesn’t change much for either player, but it does allow the Falcons to kick the can down the road and spend more this year.

Here are more deetz from around the NFL, with all links going to Twitter:

Ravens To Bring Back Justin Ellis

March 17th, 2020 at 3:52pm CST by Zachary Links

The Ravens will re-sign Justin Ellis on a one-year deal, a source tells Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). A late-season addition, Ellis made a good impression on the team in a short sample.

[RELATED: Ravens To Decline Carr’s Option]

Ellis found a nice free agent payday in 2018 when he signed a three-year, $15MM with the Raiders. Unfortunately, injuries kept him out of action and his Oakland tenure ended with an injury settlement/release. In November of last year, the Ravens picked him up and he rewarded them with solid run defense in a handful of games.

To date, Ellis has appeared in 70 career games with 42 starts.

AFC North Notes: Berry, Ravens, Mixon

January 27th, 2020 at 9:04pm CST by Rory Parks

Let’s take a quick swing around the AFC North:

  • The Browns hired former Eagles’ VP of Football Operations Andrew Berry to be their GM and EVP of Football Operations today, and he will report directly to owner Jimmy Haslam, just like new head coach Kevin Stefanski and chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta. However, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk thinks it’s fair to wonder whether Berry will really have final say over roster decisions, as his contract says he will. Of course, in order to pry Berry away from Philadelphia, Cleveland needed to give him such power contractually, but whether Berry will be permitted to fully use that power is another story. Stefanski and DePodesta may not be keen on consistently yielding to Berry, who was probably the team’s No. 2 choice behind Vikings exec George Paton.
  • In 2019, the Ravens made a number of in-season signings to bolster their defense that ended up paying major dividends. Baltimore has already inked one such acquisition, L.J. Fort, to a two-year extension, and Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic believes the club could also look to re-sign OLB/DE Jihad Ward and DT Justin Ellis.
  • Many have noted the Ravens‘ need to add pass rushing talent, and much of that discussion has focused on edge rushers. But in the same piece, Zrebiec says Baltimore will think long and hard about selecting a quality pass-rushing interior defensive lineman if one is available near the end of the first round. The Ravens haven’t really had such a player since the heyday of Haloti Ngata.
  • Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic lays out a number of moves he believes the Bengals should make this offseason. The entire piece is worth a read for Cincy fans, but one move that Dehner thinks is especially likely to come to fruition is an extension for running back Joe Mixon. We recently heard that director of player personnel Duke Tobin would explore a new contract for his RB1, and such a deal won’t be cheap.
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