Kyle and Freddie Whittingham will point to Jonah Elliss’ frame first. They will point to thick arms, which add a few extra inches to his natural 6-foot-2 height. They will point to his fluid hips.
Most of all, though, his ex-Utah coaches believe he will succeed at inside linebacker in the NFL because of his DNA.
“I would never count any of Luther Elliss’ sons out,” said Freddie Whittingham, once Utah’s recruiting coordinator and now Michigan’s tight ends coach. “I would always bet on his sons.”
Indeed, the Elliss family is to tweener linebackers as the Manning family is to pocket-passing quarterbacks. Luther Elliss, the former Broncos defensive tackle and chaplain who’s helped raise a litter of 12 children, will swear he didn’t do anything special. But four Elliss brothers have reached the NFL, with one more, Elijah, in college. And most remarkably, fit the same profile: 30-year-old Kaden Elliss is an outside-turned-inside linebacker who just signed a $33 million contract with the Saints, and 27-year-old Christian Elliss is a larger ILB who just signed a $13.5 million contract with the Patriots.
23-year-old Jonah Elliss, now, will be the latest Elliss to try to make his money at inside linebacker. With a glut of edge options and further depth needed at ILB, Broncos head coach Sean Payton told reporters at league meetings earlier this week that Jonah Elliss will “take some snaps inside.” Privately, the move has been discussed inside the Broncos’ building since the 2025 season ended, multiple sources told The Denver Post at the February NFL Combine.
“Sometimes, that inside ‘backer position — one of the best in our league in San Francisco, Fred Warner, you saw him play more out in space, outside ‘backer,” Payton said in Arizona. “So, sometimes, you have to look at the skillset and then project where you think it can go.”
It’s a drastic shift. Jonah Elliss played just 3% of his snaps in three seasons at Utah (2021-2023) from the box, according to Pro Football Focus.
Quietly, though, the potential for this move has always lingered in his background, from his very bloodline to his maturation as a prospect.
“I’m excited to see how he functions there,” former Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, now Michigan’s head coach, told The Post. “Because, like I said, he’s fully capable of it.”
A skill set that translates inside
Back in 2021, a then-210-pound Jonah Elliss committed to Utah out of Idaho, . At the time, the Utes weren’t sure if he’d step in immediately as an inside linebacker or grow into a defensive end, Kyle Whittingham said. Utah ended up moving him outside, where he racked up 12 sacks as a junior All-American, because of the scheme fit — not because “oh, he can’t play inside linebacker,” as Kyle Whittingham put it.
As Jonah Elliss went through the pre-draft process in 2023, there were “some teams” who were looking at him as an ILB, Kyle Whittingham said. Evaluators asked the former Utah coach how he thought Jonah Elliss could profile as an inside ‘backer, and he told them he simply played OLB at Utah because it was more valuable given their personnel.
“He’s certainly got the physicality to destroy blocks — block destruction is something he’s really good at,” Kyle Whittingham told The Post. “He’s also got very good just, flat-out speed … I think he’s got what it takes to be a very good all-around (inside) linebacker.”
Jonah Elliss has landed in a near-impossible path to starting edge snaps in Denver, as Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper have become one of the best OLB duos in the league. In two seasons since the Broncos drafted him in the third round in 2023, Jonah Elliss has shown plenty of flashes as a rotational edge rusher, but rarely played in any alignment except at OLB: 96% of his snaps came there in 2025, according to Next Gen Stats.
It’s easy to see his frame and downhill speed transitioning to ILB in Denver, if he makes a full-time switch. Bonitto has said previously that Jonah Elliss is a frequent winner of get-off timing drills in practice, and he’s missed just three tackles in two seasons, according to PFF.
The key to any success at ILB, now, will be his ability to cover in open space and read the middle of the field. The Post watched all 31 of Jonah Elliss’ regular-season snaps when dropping back into coverage last season; he struggled at times in the first half of the year with his assignment in match-coverage situations, but improved dramatically over the course of 2025 in blanketing multiple opposing tight ends in one-on-one situations.
Jonah Elliss improved a *ton* in coverage throughout '25. Can see ' ILB vision for him.
Clip 1: 3rd-down stop vs. GB TE John FitzPatrick in space.
Clip 2: Blows up screen to Travis Etienne.
Clip 3: Blankets TE Brenton Strange, takes away 3rd-down Trevor Lawrence's read.— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans)
Jonah Elliss also played substantial reps early in his Utah career on the Utes’ punt-coverage teams, and has done the same in two years in Denver. His stickiness there, as Freddie Whittingham told The Post, is a “pretty good indication” that Jonah Elliss can cover.
“As far as football intellect and also the discipline to get in the film room and watch tape and learn and understand assignments and adjustments, and everything that the linebackers need to be able to understand,” Freddie Whittingham said, “I think they’re going to be able to count on that guy.”
A hole to plug at ILB
The question: how much Denver wants to count on Jonah Elliss at ILB. He is a legitimate asset even in a rotational edge role, with 7.5 sacks and 11 quarterback hits across his last two seasons. But Payton’s voluntary admission at league meetings suggests this won’t be just a specialty-situation role, which could influence the Broncos’ plans come April.
After the Broncos cut Dre Greenlaw, Denver has a clear hole at LB3 entering the draft. There will be a glut of options available at No. 62: Texas Tech’s Jacob Rodriguez, Cincinnati’s Jake Golday, and Mizzou’s Josiah Trotter are all potential young targets who could eventually grow into starters in Denver.
If defensive coordinator Vance Joseph and the staff like Jonah Elliss as a legitimate LB3 option who can also take some outside snaps, though, the Broncos could opt to go offense at the back of the second round — tight end, running back, offensive line — and sit on a linebacker like TCU’s Kaleb Elarms-Orr in the fourth round.
The move could also be a way to preserve Jonah Elliss’ body, as the 246-pound linebacker has an undersized frame for banging against opposing offensive tackles. He missed four games in 2025 with a variety of ailments, and Luther Elliss told The Post during the playoffs that Jonah is “really looking at how he trains” and could add “a little more finesse” to work on staying healthy.
It’s not the most lucrative option for his career, as the market for pass-rushers has exploded in recent years. But older brother Kaden Elliss just earned himself $11 million a season back in New Orleans — where Broncos head coach Sean Payton originally drafted him. And Jonah Elliss’ old college coaches believe he has the pedigree and profile to pull off the move.
“Athletically and mentally, if anybody can make that switch, itap a kid like him,” Freddie Whittingham said.
