Emmanuel Ellerbee (born November 20, 1996) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, pl ...

who is a free agent. He played college football at

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly '' Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and ''Porteresia'', both wild and domestica ...

and was signed by the Atlanta Falcons as an undrafted free agent in 2018.

Early life

Ellerbee was born and raised in Houston, Texas and attended high school at

Strake Jesuit College Preparatory Strake Jesuit College Preparatory (properly referred to as Strake Jesuit or Jesuit but often informally called Strake by students and alumni) is a Jesuit, college-preparatory school for boys, grades 9–12, in the Chinatown area and in the Greate ...

. He was a second-team All-District and an honorable mention All-State selection at linebacker for Strake. A Houston-area top 100 football recruit, Ellerbee committed to play football for

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universit ...

after being recruited by

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

, Harvard, and

Texas State Texas State University is a public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin metropolitan area and the fifth largest university ...

College career

Ellerbee played four seasons for the

Owls Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers ...

, accumulating 273 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss, five sacks, and five fumble recoveries over the course of his career. Ellerbee was named first-team All-

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are ...

for his junior and senior seasons and recorded 238 tackles over that span.

College statistics

Professional career

Atlanta Falcons

Ellerbee was signed by Atlanta Falcons as undrafted free agent on May 2, 2018, but was waived by the team on September 1, 2018.

Los Angeles Chargers

Ellerbee was claimed off waivers by

Los Angeles Chargers The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division, and ...

on September 2, 2018. He made his NFL debut on September 30 against the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

, playing on special teams. He was waived on October 20, 2018, after appearing in three games with the Chargers.

Seattle Seahawks

Ellerbee was claimed off waivers by

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 a ...

on October 22, 2018. He was waived on November 6, 2018, and was re-signed to the practice squad. He was promoted to the active roster on December 1, 2018. He was waived by the Seahawks two days later and re-signed to the practice squad. He was promoted back to the active roster on December 12, 2018. On July 27, 2019, Ellerbee was placed on injured reserve. He was waived/injured on August 1, 2020, and reverted to the team's injured reserve list after clearing waivers the next day. He was waived from injured reserve on September 29, 2020.

Houston Texans

On October 12, 2020, Ellerbee was signed to the Houston Texans practice squad. His practice squad contract with the team expired after the season on January 11, 2021.

Atlanta Falcons (second stint)

On July 26, 2021, Ellerbee signed with the Atlanta Falcons. He was waived on August 31, 2021, and re-signed to the practice squad the next day. The Falcons signed Ellerbee to their active roster on November 18, 2021.

Houston Roughnecks

The

Houston Roughnecks The Houston Roughnecks are a professional American football team based in Houston, Texas. The team is an owned-and-operated member of the new XFL founded by Vince McMahon's Alpha Entertainment and plays its home games at TDECU Stadium. History ...

selected Ellerbee in the third round of the

2023 XFL Supplemental Draft The 2023 XFL Draft, is the player selection process to fill the rosters of the eight teams of the 2020 reboot of the XFL (2020), XFL, and the second draft in that league's history following the 2020 XFL Draft, 2020 draft. The draft was held on N ...

on January 1, 2023. The Roughnecks brand was transferred to the

Houston Gamblers The Houston Gamblers were an American football team that competed in the United States Football League in 1984 and 1985. The Gamblers were coached by veteran NFL head coach Jack Pardee in both their seasons. They were noteworthy for introducing ...

when the XFL and USFL merged to create the United Football League (UFL).

References

External links

Chargers bioRice bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellerbee, Emmanuel 1996 births Living people American football linebackers Players of American football from Houston Rice Owls football players Atlanta Falcons players Los Angeles Chargers players Seattle Seahawks players Houston Texans players 21st-century African-American sportspeople Houston Roughnecks players