More than three years later, Ifeatu Melifonwu can recall the play like it was yesterday. It was his second-to-last game at Syracuse, at home against North Carolina State at the end of a 1-10 season, and Melifonwu was sent on a blitz for the first time in his career. He sacked the quarterback for a 10-yard loss.
"It was a corner blitz, and it was only if they were condensed, because you can't corner blitz from all the way out there," Melifonwu said. "So it just was perfect to happen. I never asked for more (chances). We only had one game left after that."
Melifonwu has earned more chances in Detroit. And the Lions have at least one game left this season, Sunday in San Francisco for a spot in the Super Bowl, partly because they've tapped into Melifonwu's potential as a blitzing safety. Maybe Aaron Glenn saw the tape of Melifonwu's sack when the Lions drafted him as a corner in the third round in 2021. The summer that Melifonwu arrived, Glenn suggested he had the tools to one day be a safety. And a good one. He's been one of the best safeties in the NFL since stepping into the Lions' starting lineup last month.
Melifonwu's blend of speed and size always made him a weapon. He just needed reps to prove it. He's finally getting them after missing chunks of his first two seasons due to injuries amid a position change. The Lions started doing safety-versus-tight-end blitzes in practice midway through this season "and if you ask anyone, you ask the coaches, I was winning, like, nine out of 10 times on my reps, with just my speed and the pass-rushing moves I was doing and how I was using my hands," Melifonwu said.
"I always thought I could do it. In my head I always thought of myself as a starter. Even when I wasn’t starting, I was envisioning myself starting and the plays I knew I could make. But I think it really was apparent to the coaches when we started doing those tight end-safety one-on-one blitzes ... and (Glenn) told me, like, I gotta be on the field somewhere," said Melifonwu.
And then, just his luck, another injury. Melifonwu broke his hand in practice doing that exact blitzing drill -- "and I won the rep, too." But in the process of executing a swim move, he jammed one of his fingers into a tight end's ribs and was forced to wear a club for the next three weeks. He couldn't hit the same pass-rushing moves with his hands, which he had learned by watching teammates like Aidan Hutchinson and James Houston and highlights of other defensive ends on Instagram.
"And right when they opened my hands up, that’s when I got my time to play in the Chicago game," Melifonwu said.
The next week, in primetime against the Broncos, he had three quarterback pressures and a strip-sack of Russell Wilson in the Lions' rout at Ford Field. With Glenn dialing up the blitzes to spark Detroit's pass rush, Melifonwu looked like a natural flying into the backfield from the second level of the defense. He has long arms and elite closing speed, and the physicality to finish plays.
He had two more sacks and the game-winning pick the following week in the Lions' division-clinching victory over the Vikings on his way to being named NFC Defensive Player of the Week, then another pick in Dallas the week after that. And last Sunday, with a trip to the NFC title game on the line, Melifonwu had two more sacks in the Lions' 31-23 win over Baker Mayfield and the Bucs.
His explosiveness as a blitzer has been a boon to Detroit's defense, which is finally harassing the quarterback with some regularity. Pressure will be vital Sunday against Brock Purdy. In his last six games starting with his breakout against Denver, Melifonwu ranks as the fifth-best safety and single best pass-rushing safety in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus.
"Honestly, if you ask AG or any of the defensive guys, my rookie year when I was practicing during camp at nickel, my blitzes were so bad -- because I never really did it before," Melifonwu said. "So I was always late, or I was way too early and I would just tip it off that I’m blitzing. So the disguise and the timing of it is what I really had to learn this year."
Melifonwu credits Glenn for helping him understand the Lions' various blitz packages, "like how it’s going to work and which way they’re going to set." And now every time Melifonwu hears a blitz called in the huddle, he smiled and said, "I feel like I'm getting there."
"I just try not to show it too much and keep my composure, even though I know I'm going. Because these quarterbacks are so good that any little tell will let them know you're coming. So I just look how I look on regular plays. I try to contain my myself, but I'm excited the whole time right when he calls it," he said. "And there's certain blitzes, like, I know I'm getting there."
Glenn will send him often on Sunday. If Melifonwu gets there, the Lions just might have one more game to play.