The Detroit Lions shocked everyone when they traded up in the fourth-round of the 2024 NFL Draft to select British Columbia tackle Giovanni Manu. The Tongan-Canadian tackle has the size and athleticism that teams dream of, but he does lack some football experience.
In the time he has played football, he had some solid coaching at UBC. He was in the hands of Dan Dorazio who has experience coaching offensive linemen at the divsion one level for decades. Still, Manu is going to need some time to come along in Detroit and he’s going to get that.
There’s really no need for him to play at this point since the Lions have arguably the best offensive line in the league right now. The Lions fully plan to take their time with Manu. But how long is it going to take and now that he’s in the deep end, is he swimming yet? Lions head coach Dan Campbell gave an update on the first day of mandatory minicamp on Tuesday.
“Yeah, he’s swimming. But we expected him to be swimming.”
The big thing we learned outside of the swimming is that this is going to be a total teardown job in a sense. The Lions are going back to the basics with him and making sure they use this time they’ve been granted to build him up properly. That could mean a total redshirt year.
“We fully expected for this to get worse before it ever gets better.” Campbell said. He’s trying to find his way. I mean, we’re back to the basics of just how you get in stance properly, where your weight goes when you get out of the stance, where your help is, certainly the scheme, the working with others, working with the tight end in this combination, working with the guard, pass and twist.
He’s just in the infant stages. So we’re literally working from the ground up and we knew it was going to be that way. Here’s what we know, the guys got it in his body and he’s willing to work… I anticipate we’re going to have a guy that when we come into camp, it’s going to take a dip and then we’re going to start seeing signs of life here now. When? I don’t know, but it’ll come. You got to break them down and then and build them back up. And that’s what Hank (Fraley) is doing right now.”
When asked if the Lions expect to fully redshirt Manu is his rookie year, Campbell’s response said it all.
“I would love to say ‘hey, we’re gonna get him this year, you know, by middle of the season,’ and that would be great. And that’s always gonna be the goal, is how fast can we get one of these guys contributing and helping us. But we also knew what we were acquiring and so we’re prepared to take this as it comes. Whenever he’s ready, he’s ready. And that’s okay, if that doesn’t mean it’s this year and its next year, that’s great. But certainly we’re trying to push to get him ready now. I mean, that’ll always be the goal of these guys.”
There you go. It certainly looks like it’s going to be a while before we see Manu during the regular season. But again, the Lions don’t need him right now and when you’re a good team, you’re able to take shots at projects and work them up over time. From what we’ve learned about Manu, he has the work ethic. He’s going to be just fine when he takes the field. That’s just going to be a while from now.