The son of a Bronco, Jonah Elliss exploded last year

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Four games into last season, Jonah Elliss exploded.

In the first 28 games of his college career at Utah, he had 6 sacks and 10 tackles for loss. He was on NFL radars, but not to the point of going on the first two days of the draft.

Then, against UCLA, Elliss turned into a holy terror, notching 3.5 sacks and 5 tackles for losses. It began a 4-game stretch in which he became a game-wrecker, logging more tackles for losses — 11 — and sacks — 8 — in four games than in the previous 28.

What contributed to that?

“I really just had a burst of confidence,” Elliss said Friday after the Denver Broncos selected him with the No. 76 overall pick. “I put in a lot of work during the offseason to get better at pass rush.

“I’m obviously not perfect, but that’s something that I put a lot of time and effort into. Being able to produce the results that I had was honestly a huge blessing. I’m thankful to God for that.”

Elliss finished the season with 16 TFLs and 12 sacks. Both were more than he logged in his first two seasons combined at Utah.

JONAH ELLISS HAS RECOVERED FROM A TORN LABRUM

After being shut out of the stat column against Bo Nix and Oregon, Elliss had another 2-sack game against Arizona State and then played once more against Washington before tearing his labrum. The injury ended his season and kept him sidelined from his Combine and Pro Day workouts.

But Elliss did have a personal Pro Day session and he has been medically cleared.

Elliss saw his afore-mentioned 4-game burst end when Oregon and Nix shut him down.

“He’s a quarterback who threw the ball really fast,” Elliss said. “It was really frustrating playing against him because any time I was close, he would get rid of the ball. I’m really excited to play with him.”

FAMILY CONNECTIONS

Jonah Elliss is the son of former Broncos defensive lineman Luther Elliss, who came to the team in 2004 after a successful career in Detroit. The elder Elliss returned to the Broncos in the mid-2010s, serving as the team chaplain during its run to Super Bowl 50 before entering the coaching ranks.

Luther Elliss is currently the defensive tackles coach at Utah.

“I do remember when we moved out to Colorado (in 2015),” Jonah Elliss said. “I spent a year there. It was really awesome just to see my dad start to get back into football. Even though he was just the chaplain at the time, you could see that his love for the sport really just lights him up and gets him excited to go to work and stuff.

“So, it was awesome seeing him do that, and I’m really excited to come down where he was.”