Melifonwu building certainty after solid completion to prepare

Two things happened to Ifeatu Melifonwu in his third season this year he wasn’t afforded in Year 1 or Year 2.

One, health. Two, opportunity.

Melifonwu played in just seven games as a rookie in 2021 after the Lions made him a third-round pick in the NFL Draft that year. A quad injury landed him on IR. An ankle injury limited him to 10 games in 2022. But this past year Melifonwu avoided injury and played in all 17 games.

He became a starter the last six games of the season. That’s when the potential Lions general manager Brad Holmes saw in the 6-foot-3, 210-pound cornerback out of Syracuse stood out. Melifonwu was moved from corner to safety midway through last season with this year being his first full run at the position.

Melifonwu said after the season, “Being healthy, I feel like my confidence was growing every week.” As I watch myself again in the offseason, it will continue to expand. I realize I’m most likely going to kick myself since there’s presumably a great deal of plays I forgot about there during the entire season.

“In any case, I’m only glad to complete this year solid and my certainty will continue to develop.”

Melifonwu came serious areas of strength for on the year’s end in the wake of being embedded into the beginning arrangement Week 14. In Week 15 versus Denver, he posted two passes guarded, a sack and a constrained mishandle. In Seven days 16 matchup in Minnesota, Melifonwu shielded two passes, posted 2.0 sacks and had the NFC North title-securing capture toward the finish of the game. The next week in Dallas he recorded his second pick of the time.

In spite of playing in only 37% of Detroit’s snaps on protection this season, Melifonwu was one of three guarded moves in the NFL to create somewhere around 3.0 sacks and two capture attempts.

“He had got his opportunity, and he did a truly pleasant task to move forward,” Holmes said for the current seven day stretch of his third-year security.

Melifonwu said he worked very hard to incorporate his ability to become a weapon as a blitzer and pass rusher into his game.

“I blitzed one time in school. He stated, “I had a sack on my one blitz in college.” I think it was only my size and athletic capacity and afterward I figured out how to utilize my hands this season. Meeting with (protective organizer Aaron Glenn) AG he would make sense of the rushes to me like, ‘We are appearing down here, they got to slide along these lines, you will come free.’ He would make sense of rushes to me so I would truly trust it. Then it was simply timing it up and dealing with my camouflage.”

Melifonwu said when he attempted to barrage as a newbie playing some nickel corner it was so terrible the instructing staff quit requesting that he make it happen. He was either warning the rush too soon or was going past the point of no return and not returning home. There’s a craftsmanship to being a decent blitzer in the NFL and Melifonwu has made the fair compromise among camouflage and timing. Being an oddity competitor doesn’t hurt all things considered.

The commitments Melifonwu made late in the season and in Detroit’s season finisher run are a good representative for him and the cautious training staff for creating and offering a chance to another youthful player. Melifonwu could play a huge part for this protection right from the beginning in 2024.