{"id":16772,"date":"2025-05-02T02:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T02:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/16772\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T02:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T02:19:10","slug":"patriots-linebacker-explains-why-he-teared-up-over-new-contract-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/16772\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots linebacker explains why he teared up over new contract offer"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOXBOROUGH \u2013 Christian Elliss<\/a> remembers the feeling. He can recall the uncertainty. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s why when the Las Vegas Raiders sent him an offer sheet worth $13.5 million over two years<\/a>, the linebacker started to cry. <\/p>\n

Over the last four NFL seasons, Elliss has been cut six times by three different teams – Minnesota Vikings, San Francisco 49ers, and Philadelphia Eagles. The constant shuffling was hard on him and his wife. Wanting to settle down, Ellis was overcome with joy this offseason. Not only did the Raiders give him a contract with $7.75 million in guaranteed money, but the Patriots<\/a> matched the offer sheet.<\/p>\n

It was a life-changing moment for the Patriots linebacker.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first few years in the league, it\u2019s been a rough transition,\u201d Elliss said on Thursday. \u201cSo, when I got the offer sheet from the Raiders, I was sitting down with my wife, and it\u2019s a little personal, but I\u2019m sitting there and I\u2019m tearing up. Like, is this really happening? I\u2019ve been cut six, seven times. I\u2019ve been bouncing around the league. Did God really allow this to happen to me?\u201d<\/p>\n

An undrafted free agent out of the University of Idaho, Elliss had long odds to stick in the NFL. In 2021, he was in Minnesota before getting released at the end of training camp. He signed with the Eagles practice squad where he was released twice (September and October). That led him to San Francisco where he was released in November.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Elliss was released by the Eagles at the end of training camp but stayed on their practice squad. After signing to their active roster in December, the Eagles released him. That\u2019s when he was claimed by the Patriots.<\/p>\n

Elliss hasn\u2019t been cut since. Last year, he had the best season of his NFL career, finishing with a career-high 80 tackles, 1.5 sacks and an interception. He said that the performance \u201cset the tone\u201d for him mentally. Then, came the life-changing contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve used it to give a little more stable environment for my family,\u201d Elliss said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at getting a house. We\u2019re looking at just getting my family\u2019s side, so we aren\u2019t journeymen, so we aren\u2019t just bouncing around everywhere. I want to see my kids grow up in a house. I want them to have memories of a single house – not just bouncing around. So when we got that contract all these thoughts are going through my mind. It was special. It was special to me, special to my wife.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOXBOROUGH \u2013 Christian Elliss remembers the feeling. He can recall the uncertainty. That\u2019s why when the Las Vegas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,5648,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-16772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-isolated","10":"tag-new-england","11":"tag-new-england-patriots","12":"tag-newengland","13":"tag-newenglandpatriots","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114435847969399257","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}