Five things to know about new Detroit Lions offensive tackle Giovanni Manu.
The Detroit Lions surprised a lot of people when they used their 2025 third-round pick to trade into the fourth round and select University of British Columbia offensive tackle Giovanni Manu.
It’s undoubtedly an aggressive move, and it’s for a player who wasn’t on a lot of the public’s radar. But as you’ll learn in a minute here, Manu was a late-rising prospect among NFL evaluators, and he brings an interesting set of skills to the Lions.
Here are five things to know about the Detroit Lions’ fourth-round pick Giovanni Manu.
Penei Sewell is a role model of his
Manu grew up in Tonga—an island not too far from American Samoa, where Lions right tackle Penei Sewell is from. As both share a Polynesian background, Manu has looked up to Sewell as a role model.
“I look up to Penei a lot,” Manu told the Detroit media on Saturday afternoon. “I keep studying all of his film. I think he’s the best tackle in the league right now. He moves so fluid for how big he is, and not just that, but he’s an inspiration to the Polynesian community.”
He is the first Canadian university player drafted in eight years
The last player to be selected from U Sports was David Onyemata, who was selected in the fourth round of the 2016 Draft by the New Orleans Saints—just six spots prior to where Manu was picked. Manu is also the very first player to have ever been selected from the University of British Columbia.
“It’s been a long journey,” Manu said. “My family has had to sacrifice a lot for me to be at this stage. And I’m just truly thankful for it. I’m not here on my own.”
He’s massive… and fast
At his pro day, Manu measured in at 6-foot-7, 352 pounds. At that size, he is the heaviest player on Detroit’s roster and only second in height to 6-foot-9 Dan Skipper.
But despite that size, Manu still displays unbelievable athleticism for a player of his build. His 40-yard dash time (5.06) and vertical (33.5), both measure out in the top-85 percentile of offensive tackles.
The players he lined up against in college look comically small in this highlight reel posted by the Detroit Lions.
If you’re looking for a visual display of this athleticism, let me point you to some high school tape…
He played high school basketball and they called him “Baby Shaq”
Like Terrion Arnold, Manu is a serious basketballer. According to Dane Brugler, Arnold averaged over 30 points a game during his senior high school season, earning himself the nickname “Baby Shaq.” And seeing the way he threw his body around in the highlight reel above, you can see why he earned that nickname.
Most media analysts did not have him with a draftable grade, but the NFL had a lot of late interest in him
In Dane Brugler’s draft guide, Manu was listed as the 31st-best offensive tackle in this year’s draft class with a grade of “priority free agent.” Our friends at Blogging the Boys list him with a seventh-round/UDFA grade.
That said, Manu drew a lot of attention during the pre-draft process. According to The Draft Network, he had taken a pre-draft visit with 11 different NFL teams, including the Cowboys, Giants, Jets, Patriots, Browns, Bengals, Colts, Packers, Chiefs and Broncos. According to Tom Pelissero 10 of those visits came in the final 10 days of the visit window.
There will be a lot of talk about whether the Lions reached with this pick, but it’s clear there was a significant amount of interest from teams to take him somewhere.
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