For the second time during the 2024 season, the Detroit Lions have placed Ifeatu Melifonwu on injured reserve.
For the second time during the 2024 season, the Detroit Lions have placed Ifeatu Melifonwu on injured reserve. After a sensational end to the 2023 season, expectations were high for Melifonwu heading into this season, but he’s yet to see any regular season action so far, and won’t be eligible to do so until a few days before Christmas.
Melifonwu was injured late in the preseason but was carried onto the active roster in the hopes of recovering quickly. After being inactive during Week 1-4, the Lions elected to place him on injured reserve so that his ankle could properly heal. Melifonwu’s injury evaluation window was opened just under two weeks ago, and he was able to begin practicing. Unfortunately, Melifonwu injured his finger in practice this past week, which requires another stint on injured reserve.
Because Melifonwu needed to go on injured reserve due to a new injury, the Lions needed to do a bit of roster shuffling to get him back into position to go back to injured reserve.
First, they needed to activate him from his current injured reserve stint (ankle) in order to close that loop, which they did on Monday. After a day on the active roster, Melifonwu is now headed back to injured reserve (finger) for a second term. Like before, Melifonwu will be required to miss a minimum of four games, will be eligible to return in Week 16, and will have the option to progress through another injury evaluation window before potentially rejoining the active roster.
