Ifeatu Melifonwu – March 24, 2025
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Monday, March 24, 2025
S Ifeatu Melifonwu
(I want to know what does your name mean and is there any easy way to understand the pronunciation or is something shorter that guys generally call you?) – “Yeah, so first, my name means ‘reminder.’ It’s Igbo, I’m Nigerian, it’s Igbo, so ‘reminder’. So basically, my mom said when she was pregnant with me, unfortunately her dad passed away a couple months earlier so now whenever it’s my birthday, she knows it reminds her of when her dad passed. So it’s like reminder. And you say it, ‘ee-FAH-too, ee-FAH-too,’ but usually, mostly everyone calls me ‘Iffy,’ like ‘I-F-F-Y.’ So like college, high school, when I was in Detroit, coaches, trainers, media would call me ‘Iffy’ but usually when something is posted it will be Ifeatu. They don’t put ‘Iffy’ in the article.”
(I saw that your brother also played in the league, or still plays in the league, not sure. What did that do for you in terms of giving you a goal for something to aspire for?) – “Yeah, it definitely gave me a goal of just to see someone I’m related to, my brother, someone close to me just to make it. It inspired me to make it, motivated me to beat his numbers at Combine and everything. But more so, from a competition standpoint he just really pushed me and gave me advice on things to do or how the league would be.”
(First, the Dolphins had a fourth-ranked defense last year. What stood out to you about the unit just as a whole?) – “I feel like just the playmakers they had. Just the playmakers, (Jalen) Ramsey, Kader (Kohou) – obviously (Jevón) Holland but he’s gone – and Chop (Robinson) as well. I was in-season, so I wasn’t really watching the Dolphins that much, but I would always see – we would watch a turnover tape, and we’d always see the Dolphins and stuff on there and them just making plays and flying around and it looks like having fun as well.”
(What was your impression of Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver?) – “It was good. Great first impression, we had a great meeting when I went up there to sign and everything. Just excited for the opportunity to work with him and he said he’s excited for the opportunity to coach me as well.”
(I know you’ve had some unfortunate injuries throughout your career. Do you personally view it as just a bunch of bad luck or are there some things that you think you can do moving forward to limit injuries?) – “I think early on I didn’t do as much as I should have been, like just being young. But there’s definitely – sometimes it’s luck to be honest. Some stuff I had, like tackle and I got rolled up on with my ankle facing up. Sometimes it’s just pure luck, but there’s definitely stuff I’ve approached this offseason with my trainer and nutrition-wise and different stuff like that to help prevent injuries going forward.”
(How important is it to you to be a starter?) – “I mean, it’s very important. I feel like through the four years I’ve proved what I can do and people have seen it and my coach, Coach (Brian) Duker, when he was there when I was at the Lions, he’s seen it firsthand so it’s very important to me. I know I’m still going to have to go out and compete and earn a starting spot and I’ve never really had anything handed to me even since Syracuse days. So I’m excited for that opportunity but I definitely feel like as a starter there’s things that I can bring to this defense and have an impact on the defense.”
(Obviously, you would have been a full-time starter in Detroit last year if not for the injury. You’ve had starting experience, but the Dolphins haven’t signed anyone who’s started like 60 or 70 NFL games at safety. Did they tell you that they envision you being a starter in the post-Jevón Holland, post-Jordan Poyer era?) – “I mean, without saying too much the conversations that I’ve had are that it would be a great fit for me there and they’re excited to work with me. So we’ll see what happens. I’m excited to just get the opportunity to compete and that’s all I’m really looking forward to.”
(And your skill set, how does it fit Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver, Pass Game Coordinator/Secondary Coach Brian Duker defense do you think? What things do you do well that are important in this defense where obviously they’ve had like a Kyle Hamilton type at safety with Weaver’s background with Baltimore?) – “I just feel like from seeing me play in Detroit, I just feel like my size and speed and coverage ability and being able to tackle and blitz can really help anyone’s defense in general. So I’m just excited to see where I’ll play, how they’ll use me. Haven’t really got the opportunity to fully talk about that in depth, so I’m just excited and anywhere they decide to put me I’ll be happy at. Like I said, I’m just ready to go out there and compete.”
(You were with Detroit during the rise of that organization, and you remember the 2022 game you played against the Dolphins. The organizations have gone in different directions since then. What led to your guys’ ascent in Detroit and what can you apply from that to the Dolphins?) – “I feel like even going back to 2021, I know we were 3-13-1 but when you really watch those games and how we would lose those games, we would lose like last second field goal – Justin Tucker NFL record 66-yard field goal, Kirk Cousins last-minute drive. So we were right there and I feel like we just fully bought in from right when Coach (Dan) Campbell got there. So we knew it was just like keep working and we never lost our identity through it all. And it just showed, like just kept putting our head down and going to work and I feel like that’s what I’ll bring to the Dolphins. I’m just going to – right when I get there, just buy into everything Coach (McDaniel) is saying and everything Coach Weaver is saying and just put your head down and work and avoid all the distractions because I’ve seen both of it. Like we were 3-13-1, I’ve seen all the articles of how bad we were and X-Y-Z, and then we go to playoffs, NFC Championship and see how good we were, like the articles saying how good we were and all that type of stuff. So I feel like the most important thing is just to block out the good or the bad because it’s going to be up and down and just go to work every day.”
(You hear a lot about young players when you go from your rookie year to your second year, there’s a big difference and they say one reason is because before your rookie year you’re training for the combine. You’re not doing football skills and then after your rookie year, you are doing football skills and you’re making improvement. Do you agree with that and how did that affect you if that’s the case for you?) – “I agree with that. I don’t think it’s like because you’re training for Combine. Like if you have a good trainer, you’re doing your position stuff, too. You’re doing football stuff too because you still got to do Pro Day, Combine – there’s still drills and everything too, so I don’t think it’s that. I think it’s right when the college season ends, you’re working non-stop until the Combine and then Pro Day and then you literally only had – like me, I think I had less than two weeks and you go straight back into rookie minicamp and then OTAs. So you’re working the whole time and everything’s just moving fast, trying to learn a whole new defense. College is kind of simpler, just depends on where you were. And then sometimes you get to the NFL and your position gets switched. So you might have been a corner and now you get to the league and you’re a nickel, or you’re a nickel and corner, or you’re a corner and safety. So I just think a lot of stuff, it goes fast, and then I think your second year it kind of slows down a little bit. With me, I feel like – I was a corner in college and then when I got to Detroit, they had me learn corner, nickel and safety all at once; so a lot of things were fast at first. But then when I was playing, I was really only playing corner but then maybe second week in, I might have to go at nickel for a couple plays, you know what I mean? So that was my first year. And then for me, my second year is when I got switched to safety. So it wasn’t like necessary slowed down because now I’m learning a new position, so really like 2022 was my first year at safety but I wasn’t even fully a safety, I was both kind of. So my first full year at safety was 2023 and the whole time Coach Duker is the one that’s teaching me how to play safety. So that’s from Year 2 to 3 for me, that’s when it really slowed down because that was technically my Year 1 to 2. And obviously, we all saw what happened in 2023 when I was full time at safety.”
