Valor alum Elliss looks to follow dad to NFL
Noah Elliss doesn’t have many memories of his father Luther’s NFL playing career, which began in 1995 as Detroit’s first-round pick and wrapped up nine years later with the Broncos.
But one, nearly two decades later, remains indelible, special and unforgettable.
Noah believes he was 4 years old when Luther ran out of the Ford Field tunnel before a Lions game.
“At that moment, I realized I wanted to play football at that level,” Noah said. “It was just the energy and the crowd in the stadium and seeing a loved one, especially my dad, it was surreal.”
Noah’s goal of playing in the NFL will become a reality next week when he could be drafted in the late rounds or, at the very least, sign with a team as a free agent.
“It will be amazing (to get the call),” Elliss said in a phone interview with The Post. “It’s something I’ve always dreamt about and I wanted to be like my dad and play football. It will be a reminder to myself that I’ve done well, but still have more I want to accomplish.”
A two-year standout at Valor Christian in Highlands Ranch, Noah’s path to the cusp of pro football has been the opposite of Luther, who was first-team AllWAC three times for Utah and a first-team All-america selection as a senior.
Noah played only 21 college games before declaring for the draft.
Had he stayed in school, he would have followed his father from Idaho to Utah, where Luther is the Utes’ new defensive line coach.
2017: Noah committed to Mississippi State, but didn’t qualify academically to enroll.
2018: He started taking classes at Idaho, but didn’t play football.
2019: He sustained a torn ACL in his fifth game.
“That was a wake-up call for me because that was my first major injury,” Elliss said. “I wanted to have a growth mindset and not look at it from a negative perspective and just be goal-oriented on what I needed to accomplish. That outweighed the negative.”
2020: The pandemic shifted Idaho’s FCS schedule to the spring and limited the schedule to six games. Elliss had 18 tackles and one sack.
2021: Elliss got his chance, starting six of his 10 games and making 46 tackles (6½ for lost yardage) and one sack to be named honorable mention All-big Sky.
“A lot of (the success) was just believing in myself more and trusting my technique and what I had been taught by my dad as my coach,” Noah said.
Elliss was invited to the EastWest Shrine Game, but was pulled out of the practices by his agent after a concerning play.
“It was the second day of practice and I was attempting to tackle the running back, but then my linebacker came down and as he was making the tackle, his body did a swinging motion and his legs hit me in the knee I had surgery on,” Elliss said. “It wasn’t (concerning), but to people who were watching the practice, it looked bad.”
At the combine, Elliss checked in at 6-foot-4 and 346 pounds, but suffered a setback when he tore his hamstring while running the 40-yard dash on the Lucas Oil Stadium turf surface. Elliss will be unable to participate in his new team’s offseason program but expects to be ready for training camp.
Elliss, 23, said he has taken predraft visits to Las Vegas and New England and also been in contact with New Orleans and Arizona.
“I’m getting a lot of confidence knowing and understanding how teams operate and what I can expect from the coaches if I go to those teams as a rookie,” he said.
Elliss said teams view him as a nose tackle in a 3-4 scheme who can use his size — he ideally wants to play at 340 pounds — to clog up an opponent’s run game.
“I believe I can move and bend well for someone my size, which is really rare,” he said. “I have a lot more in my toolbox than people know.”