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The San Francisco 49ers will need depth all over the secondary this offseason. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the team signed safety Obi Melifonwu Monday morning. He’ll be 27 next April. The former second-round pick in 2017 is 6’4”, 226 pounds, and was a freak athlete coming out of college. These are the type of “future” contracts you bet on. Melinfonwu ran a 4.40 40-yard dash, had a 44” vertical jump, and an 11-foot-7 inch broad jump. Talk about explosiveness.
Melifonwu has not played since 2018. He only played two games with the Patriots that season and five games with the Raiders the season before. This is going to surprise you, but Melifonwu has an injury history. That’s why the Raiders released him before the start of the 2018 season.
Melifonwu had a knee injury that kept him from suiting up until October, his rookie season, after undergoing Arthroscopic knee surgery before the start of the 2017 season. In December of 2017, Melifonwu sat out of Week 15 with a hip injury. He was placed on the injured reserve that same week. In August of 2018, Melifonwu was battling an undisclosed lower-body injury that kept him out of the Raiders training camp. Melifonwu was later waived that month. His stint with the Patriots didn’t last long as he suffered an ankle injury in September of 2019.