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Syracuse, N.Y. — There hasn’t been a year Syracuse produced this many surefire NFL draft picks in nearly a decade.
So when Friday rolled around marking the school’s Pro Day, an event for prospects to run, lift and leap their way up the ranks of NFL team needs, a football program starving for attention at the height of basketball season got to trot out its three top prospects for next month’s draft.
Andre Cisco, Ifeatu Melfonwu and Trill Williams are going to make a lot of money very soon. All three defensive backs are projected to be drafted, possibly by the end of the third round, putting Syracuse in the company of an Ohio State or Alabama, places that often have multiple future pros at a position any given season.
It’s as good a day for Syracuse football as any since hoisting a bowl trophy 27 months ago, yet it passed with a hint of sadness of what we missed out on.
Cisco, five months since undergoing surgery on his knee, only participated in the bench press as he continues rehabbing a season-ending injury suffered before the third game of last season. He said he expects to be ready for the start of training camp in the summer.
He went up to grab a deep ball during a pregame drill, mimicking the ball-hawking ability that translated to 13 career interceptions in just 24 games, when a teammate going through a different drill collided with him.
“It could have happened to either of us,” Cisco said, “but I was in the air at the time, so I was the unlucky one.
“I came down and walked off the field. It felt off but didn’t really know at the time. It ended up being an ACL. Definitely a freak accident, something I didn’t see coming, and it ended up taking me out for the season. I had to come to terms with that and just focus on rehabbing for the next level.”
Williams, a versatile widget who can play any position in the secondary, revealed Friday he played through parts of last season with a torn ligament in his ankle that required surgery. He made it to Game 5, then bowed out to focus on rehab and his future.
That left Melifonwu as the only of the three to finish out a straining 1-10 season. He turned in an All-ACC season, declared for the draft, shined at the Senior Bowl in January and had its personnel director proclaim his “first-round” profile after Friday’s workout at SU.
Melifonwu could become the school’s first Day 1 pick since Justin Pugh in 2013. If Cisco hadn’t gotten hurt, he could have been in Round 1 discussion, too, giving SU a shot at having two first-round picks for the first time since Tebucky Jones and Donovin Darius in 1998.
If current draft projections hold, it would be the first time since Will Allen (first round; New York Giants), Eric Downing (third round; Kansas City Chiefs) and Morlon Greenwood (third round; Miami Dolphins) in 2001 that Syracuse has three players taken in the first three rounds of the draft.
That’s the kind of rare talent recruited and developed in the secondary by Dino Babers’ current and former defensive assistants. And it’s a painful reminder that it rarely had all three on the field at the same time.
Cisco burst onto the scene as a midyear enrollee in 2018, earning All-America honors and becoming the first freshman in 20 years to lead the nation in interceptions.
The height and length that have scouts drooling over Melifonwu was first displayed during a spot appearance in a crucial double-overtime victory against North Carolina to help springboard SU to 10 wins.
Earlier that season, Williams hovered underneath a blocked punt and ran in his first touchdown, his favorite in a career marked by big plays.
“If we all were healthy and were able to finish out the season, you guys would have seen one of the best DB cores Syracuse probably ever had,” Williams said. “I’d do anything to do it again and play with those guys again, and hopefully that’s not the last time I get to line up with them to my left and to my right.”
They all returned to Syracuse this week after departing at various points last fall, so did a half dozen seniors from the 2019 team that had their Pro Day wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic.
The NFL combine in Indianapolis was shelved, too, making Friday’s event the de facto combine experience for Melifonwu and Williams. Cisco, because of the knee, wouldn’t have participated in any drills there, either.
SU hasn’t had a collection of NFL prospects on campus for this event since that 2013 group headlined by Pugh and quarterback Ryan Nassib, who helped resuscitate a losing program with two bowl wins heading into a new conference.
This group manifested as much optimism early on, helping lift SU to unprecedented heights in the ACC.
Then they departed sooner than most, leaving us to wonder how a difficult season might have gotten a better ending.
For that, we’re the unlucky ones.
Contact Nate Mink anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-430-8253
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