{"id":109832,"date":"2021-04-12T09:30:53","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T13:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=109832"},"modified":"2025-09-25T12:01:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:01:45","slug":"2021-nfl-draft-ifeatu-melifonwu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2021\/04\/12\/2021-nfl-draft-ifeatu-melifonwu\/","title":{"rendered":"2021 NFL Draft: Ifeatu Melifonwu Player Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Ifeatu Melifonwu 2021 NFL Draft Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Position: <\/strong>Cornerback<br \/>\n<strong>Height: <\/strong>6\u2019-2\u201d<br \/>\n<strong>Weight:<\/strong> 205 pounds<br \/>\n<strong>School: <\/strong>Syracuse<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2021-nfl-draft-profiles\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong>More 2021 NFL Draft Profiles<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Ifeatu Melifonwu 2021 NFL Draft Profile<\/h2>\n<p>After a fantastic college career at Syracuse, cornerback Ifeatu Melifonwu hopes to take his game to the next level in the 2021 NFL Draft. The younger brother of former second-round pick Obi Melifonwu, Ifeatu is coming off what is probably the best season of his young career. Seeing the field for 910 snaps, Melifonwu finished the year allowing 33 receptions on 3994 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception on 50 targets.<\/p>\n<p>Melifonwu originally entered the college football landscape as a three-star recruit. A Massachusetts native, the Grafton High School product starred in football, basketball, lacrosse, and track. However, despite his athletic prowess, he only received two scholarship offers from major programs.<\/p>\n<h3>Strengths<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Absolute freak of nature from an athletic standpoint;<\/li>\n<li>Ideal build for the position with ability to break up contested passes;<\/li>\n<li>Great acceleration \u2013 goes from 0 to 60 in no time at all;<\/li>\n<li>Never going to get beat deep on straight go routes;<\/li>\n<li>Limitless ceiling \u2013 if coached up, he could be the best cornerback in this class.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Weaknesses<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Exclusively an outside cornerback \u2013 rarely moved into the slot;<\/li>\n<li>Freak athleticism does not translate to lateral movements;<\/li>\n<li>Can be beat with quickness and comeback routes;<\/li>\n<li>A guy this big should be much more physical;<\/li>\n<li>Lacks the instincts to be a great zone cornerback \u2013 much more comfortable in man;<\/li>\n<li>Per Pro Football Focus, only 183 snaps in press coverage over the past two years;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>NFL Comparison:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WillJo13.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joejuan Williams<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Teams With Need At Position: <\/strong>San Francisco 49ers, Denver Broncos, Arizona Cardinals, Dallas Cowboys, New Orleans Saints<\/p>\n<p><strong>Projection<\/strong>: Early-mid 3<sup>rd <\/sup>Round<\/p>\n<h3>Bottom Line on Ifeatu Melifonwu<\/h3>\n<p>Ifeaut Melifonwu has one of the widest ranges of outcomes in this entire class. In terms of what he is physically capable of doing, there aren\u2019t too many cornerbacks more talented in this class. Human beings should not be as big, strong, and fast as Melifonwu, and he consistently shows off these gifts when targeted in the deep part of the field. Put simply, he has the unteachable traits that every coach in the world desires.<\/p>\n<p>Melifonwu has one of the highest ceilings in the class, but he also has a pretty low floor. Despite his physical gifts, Melifonwu doesn\u2019t play with that much physicality. He definitely holds his own in man coverage, but a guy of his build should be able to dominate just about any college-level receiver. His instincts are a little too slow for a zone-heavy scheme, and he hardly played press coverage during his time with Syracuse. Combine this with his inability to line up in the slot, and it\u2019s easy to see a path where he doesn\u2019t pan out in the NFL.<\/p>\n<p>I fully acknowledge that Melifonwu has the God-given talent to make my third-round draft grade look absolutely foolish in two years. However, there are just too many risks to justify a selection in the first or second round. That said, he\u2019s a perfect high-risk, high-reward pick for a team that already has a strong group of cornerbacks.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2021-nfl-draft-profiles\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong>More 2021 NFL Draft Profiles<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"P8VoBTDPS69g1XAyNvZtYA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1303374263\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'P8VoBTDPS69g1XAyNvZtYA',sig:'v871-RA4ILNO2_og3BTjKlFDGXAXtxntONa1Bny2w4Y=',w:'594px',h:'446px',items:'1303374263',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ifeatu Melifonwu had a fantastic career at Syracuse and now looks to take his game to the professional level via the 2021 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":109833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1647,33760],"tags":[7945,2030],"class_list":["post-109832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","category-profiles","tag-ifeatu-melifonwu","tag-nfl-draft-profiles"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109832"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247002,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109832\/revisions\/247002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}