{"id":852350,"date":"2026-04-04T00:59:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T00:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/852350\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T00:59:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T00:59:19","slug":"anonymous-exec-rips-falcons-for-letting-saints-sign-kaden-elliss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/852350\/","title":{"rendered":"Anonymous exec rips Falcons for letting Saints sign Kaden Elliss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone has an opinion, and that extends to NFL general managers, personnel executives, and head coaches. With free agency largely in the rearview mirror and the league convening in Phoenix for spring owners meetings, it’s a good time to gather some scuttlebutt. The Athletic’s Mike Sando<\/a> shared takes from anonymous executives from different teams on the moves all 32 squads made in free agency.<\/p>\n

Some were good (the New Orleans Saints<\/a> were lauded for building an “impressive” free agent class). Some were not. Three different anonymous sources criticized the Atlanta Falcons’ plan for free agency, or lack thereof. The third executive Sando spoke with put Atlanta’s front office under the microscope in particular.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cYou give the 41-year-old kicker (Nick Folk) two years, $9 million, $4 million guaranteed,\u201d the third exec said, rattling off the Falcons’ free agent additions. \u201cJake Bailey, a punter, gets three years, $9 million, $5 million guaranteed. Austin Hooper is 31. Tua (Tagovailoa), I can see that \u2014 they needed to do something. Christian Harris is young enough as a linebacker to have some upside. But that is not a good class. That\u2019s a grab bag of, \u2018We don\u2019t know what we\u2019re doing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That train of thought extended to the departure of Kaden Elliss; the veteran linebacker and Atlanta’s defensive team captain returned to the Saints, the team that drafted him. The third exec continued: \u201cWhy are you doing these deals? If you are going to pay these guys, why wouldn\u2019t you pay to keep Kaden Elliss? He is 30 years old, but a good player coming off one of his best years. Played like 100 percent of the snaps (99.9 percent), can play multiple spots, can rush, play off the ball. It\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

One team’s loss can be another team’s gain. Elliss will replace his old mentor Demario Davis in the middle of the Saints defense, and his contract is loaded with incentives that will reward him for rushing the quarterback in obvious passing situations. While the Falcons made a strong effort to keep defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich on staff after hiring a new head coach, they didn’t extend that effort to re-sign one of Ulbrich’s best players. Now he’s playing against them. Let’s hope this isn’t the last bad decision to come out of Atlanta for New Orleans to capitalize on.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: NFL free agency: Falcons criticized for blunder that helped Saints<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everyone has an opinion, and that extends to NFL general managers, personnel executives, and head coaches. With free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,7887,23383,6838,224,7,4609,16253,2662,11415,8575,896,55,6,113938,10554,116586],"class_list":{"0":"post-852350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlantafalcons","11":"tag-austin-hooper","12":"tag-christian-harris","13":"tag-demario-davis","14":"tag-falcons","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-free-agency","17":"tag-jake-bailey","18":"tag-jeff-ulbrich","19":"tag-kaden-elliss","20":"tag-mike-sando","21":"tag-new-orleans","22":"tag-new-orleans-saints","23":"tag-nfl","24":"tag-nfl-general-managers","25":"tag-nick-folk","26":"tag-personnel-executives"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116343732376685394","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852350","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=852350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}