FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- Kaden Elliss remembers drawing up plays with his brothers to play two-on-two football in the backyard. Elliss has the voice of former New Orleans Saints teammate and nine-year veteran Craig Robertson in his mind, reminding him football is a kid's game and to never lose his joy.
But Elliss is no longer a kid. The 6' 2", 240-pound linebacker turns 30 years old in July, just under two weeks before arriving for his seventh training camp in the NFL and third with the Atlanta Falcons.
Elliss, who played defensive end in college, was a seventh-round pick out of Idaho in 2019. Only 10 players were drafted later than him. Now, he's coming off the best season of his NFL career.
The Salt Lake City, Utah, native started all 17 games in 2024, notching a career-high 151 tackles while making the first interception of his pro career on Sunday Night Football in Week 17. He added five sacks, eight tackles for loss and 16 quarterback hits, the latter of which not only set a career high but also led the team -- by four over the next closest player.
He's the only player in Falcons history to record at least 100 tackles, five sacks and an interception in the same.
Elliss is a rarity. Divine Deablo, a fifth-year linebacker who signed with the Falcons this spring and figures to start next to Elliss in the fall, said Elliss is a veteran by the definition of it.
But apart from being the eldest of 12 siblings, Elliss is unique in that he entirely feels he's still evolving as a football player at an age where most plateau or start regressing. Falcons inside linebackers coach Barrett Ruud agrees.
"I think what's cool about him is he's one of the few 29- to 30-year-olds still on the rise as a football player," Ruud told Atlanta Falcons on SI before OTAs. "He was a little bit of a late bloomer in general, and then he came into the NFL solely playing defensive end from Idaho.
"So, what's cool is he's a player that's on the rise. He's been very healthy, takes great care of himself. He's a true pro. There's not many 30-year-olds that still (have) the trajectory moving up in their football career."
Elliss played only three games as a rookie in 2019, and through his first two seasons, he'd been on the field for just five total defensive snaps. Prior to a breakthrough seven-sack campaign in 2022, Elliss had started only one game in his first three years.
Now, he's started all 34 appearances since signing a three-year, $21.5 million contract with the Falcons in the spring of 2023.
Elliss, of course, has blossomed statistically and financially. He's also grown spiritually, and when he ponders why, as a nearing-30-year-old linebacker in an athleticism-based era at the position, he's still getting better, his mind turns toward faith.
"I think first and foremost, it goes back to the, 'Why?' Why do you play the game, why do you do what you do, why do you live life?" Elliss said during OTAs. "For me, first off, it's for Jesus. He tells me to do everything as I'm working for the Lord and not for man. So, although man may be satisfied, I don't believe (Jesus) is.
"I know he's got more plans for me, not just in football but in life. So, I think that permeates in every part of my life, and I'm not saying I'm perfect at it -- you can find a lot of flaws in that argument for my lifestyle -- but at the same time, I'm striving for that every single day."
Elliss also has a bevy of examples who've filled his mental repertoire. His father, Luther Elliss, played 10 NFL seasons on the defensive line and earned a pair of Pro Bowl nods. Kaden Elliss has witnessed his father's character growth and finds motivation in following the same trajectory.
There's also another of his former Saints teammates in 13-year veteran and five-time All-Pro linebacker Demario Davis, who mentored Elliss throughout his rookie contract from 2019-22.
Davis taught Elliss about the "bag," or pieces to a player's arsenal, and the significance of adding to the bag each offseason. It happens routinely in basketball, where players often implement different aspects into their skill set during the summer, and to Elliss, there's no reason football players can't do the same.
When Davis and Elliss first met, Davis was entering his eighth professional season -- one year further than where Elliss currently stands. Elliss watched as Davis, in his age-30 season, became an All-Pro for the first time in 2019 and has sustained that level ever since.
Elliss wants to use the lessons he learned from Davis to do similar things in Atlanta this fall.
"Hearing the player he was to the player he had become, and continuing to watch the player he has continued to grow into be, is something I've got a very close, behind the scenes, kind of watch it," Elliss said. "And now I'm also trying to emulate that as well, just continue to add to my bag."
The tricky line Elliss walks is that his bag has more pockets than nearly any other defensive player in the NFL.
"In all reality, there's not many in the league that are like him," Ruud said. "He's kind of one of one. I think Frankie Luvu in Washington is a little bit similar. (Andrew) Van Ginkel in Minnesota has some similarities. But he's unique."
Elliss played 1,097 defensive snaps in 2024, the third-most in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus. He spent 156 snaps rushing the passer, 419 snaps in run defense and 522 snaps in pass coverage.
Thus, Elliss approached his offseason looking less to add to his bag and more to refine the techniques and skills already within it. Elliss said at the start of OTAs he was unsure how, precisely, new defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich will utilize him this season, but at least in 2024, he was used in a variety of ways -- and wants to be ready for the same workload in the fall.
"The awesome part about that, I get to do a lot of fun things on the football field. The negatives, I might be using the most techniques out of anybody else on the field in one game," Elliss said. "So, these other guys are getting to work the same thing on repetition.
"So, for me, this offseason was, 'Alright, I know what I do well. I know how I do it. I know how I'm going to be used, at least to some regard. How do I sharpen it so I'm just as good as someone who just does one job?'"
Elliss said he'll always consider himself an edge rusher at heart, but he's set out to prove he can do everything asked of him at a high level.
"I didn't try to get much faster, much stronger -- I tried to maintain everything in that regard," Elliss said. "Mentally, continue to grow. But really, technique -- how do you become sharper, and not just a jack of all trades but a master of all of them?"
The answer rests in the work. Deablo said Elliss stays after practice and meetings, putting in extra time to hone his craft. While Deablo spoke with reporters following the team's fourth OTA practice, he turned around and said, "(Elliss) might still be out here somewhere." Deablo didn't immediately spot Elliss, but the semantics behind his gesture remained.
Deablo, who spent the first four years of his pro career with the Las Vegas Raiders, said Elliss makes his job easy. Falcons safety Jessie Bates III dubbed Elliss "a great leader," and he and Bates give Atlanta's defense a pair of high-level communicators, which Bates said is "very valuable" to the unit's success.
Elliss doesn't yet know how he and Deablo will complement each other -- that'll be determined when pads come on during training camp and Ulbrich unveils the depths to which Elliss's versatility will be on display.
The onus falls on Ulbrich to maximize Elliss, but between Ruud and Falcons head coach Raheem Morris, Ulbrich has a pair of resources who saw the disruption Elliss created last season and have the blueprint to replicate results in 2025.
"He's got a unique skill set, and you always have to take advantage of that," Ruud said. "Will he be up there as much as last year? He was really effective doing it. So, we got to make sure we're always putting him in a position to impact the game, and he has a unique skill set where he can do it from a lot of different spots."
Now, somehow, the player who didn't get an NFL combine invite and appeared destined for a life on special teams is heading into his fourth season as a starter -- and still may not have reached his full potential.
So, what's Elliss's ceiling? He's broken through several glass barriers already, and with a niche skill set that's innately valuable to the modern NFL, the Falcons aren't ready to put a limit on him.
But Atlanta knows this much: Elliss, with his size, athleticism and more-refined bag, can be a significant piece in the middle of what the Falcons anticipate being a much-improved defense this fall.
"I think versatility is what the game is becoming," Ruud said. "I think it's more and more paramount, man. So, when you've got a guy who can do that stuff, it's a huge advantage."