Ranking Dolphins Top 25 Players: Melifonwu Brings Versatility

The Miami Dolphins are entering a critical season in 2025. After missing the playoffs last season and not making any blockbuster moves this offseason, the team is under a lot of pressure to finally get over the hump in the playoffs.

With that in mind, it seems like an excellent time to rank the Dolphins’ top 25 players heading into the 2025 season. This list was voted on by site publisher Alain Poupart (@PoupartNFL), deputy editor Dante Collinelli (@DanteCollinelli) and contributor Jake Mendel (@JMendel94).

The rankings were compiled separately based on a points system. That system awarded 25 points to the first player in each writer’s top 25, 24 to the second player, 23 to the third player, and so on.

No. 19: Ifeatu Melifonwu, Safety

The Dolphins' safety room was one of the worst units on the team last season, so they let Jevon Holland and Jordan Poyer walk in free agency.

To replace one of them, the team added Ifeatu Melifonwu from the Detroit Lions. Melifonwu has some of the most underrated tape on the team, but there’s a significant caveat to betting on him to be a reliable player — his health.

The only time Melifonwu has played more than 10 games in a season was in 2023. He’s been limited by various injuries, but most recently missed all but four games of the 2024 season after a training camp ankle injury.

This has led to Melifonwu playing in just 37 games across four seasons, and he’s played more than 250 snaps just once (535 in 2023). Even that comes with an asterisk, as Melifonwu only became a consistent contributor starting in Week 14.

Between Week 1 and Week 13, he logged just 67 snaps on defense. In his defense, the Lions’ safety room was incredibly stacked, and when he did become a fixture of the defense, he was great.

However, any positive forecasting you’re doing around Melifonwu’s play is based on a seven-week run (four regular season games, three playoff games) at the end of the 2023 season and a four-week run (three regular season games, one playoff game) at the end of the 2024 season.

That said, there’s a lot to like on Melifonwu’s tape, especially during that seven-week run in 2023. He showed the ability to play all over the field, something his background as a college cornerback should continue to help with.

He has the size (6-foot-3, 210 pounds) to match tight ends in the slot, the speed to operate effectively as a deep-half player, and the physicality to step up and make tackles in the running game.

In 2023, Melifonwu took 233 snaps at free safety, 168 in the box, and 113 at slot cornerback. Those 168 reps in the box can also be broken down further. He took reps as a weakside linebacker and in a robber role.

Melifonwu isn’t exactly elite in any of these areas, but he possesses baseline traits that enable solid play in a multitude of roles. From a big picture perspective, he’ll likely be labeled as a strong safety and play closer to the line scrimmage because that complements Minkah Fitzpatrick’s skill set much better.

If Melifonwu can stay healthy this season, he could be the team’s biggest steal from this offseason.

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