Giovanni Manu: Evaluating his progress after the Lions first padded practice

USA Today

2 days ago

As the Detroit Lions complete their fifth day of training camp and the first padded practice, there remains no player I get asked about more than second-year offensive lineman Giovanni Manu. The greenhorn tackle and 2024 fourth-round pick (using a 2025 third-rounder to trade up to acquire him) was selected out of the Canadian USports college level with the knowledge that Manu was very much a developmental project.
He spent his entire rookie season on the Lions inactive player list for games, learning basic technical points of playing football, a game he didn't take up until his teens. Blessed with truly incredible size/strength/speed athleticism, Manu needed to learn how to play football.
Now in his second camp, Manu had shown sporadic progress over the first four practices, with Thursday's session being a particularly rough one. But the pads coming on for Friday's session made it the first real time where it felt like evaluating Manu's progress was truly fair.
So that's how I spent a good portion of Friday's practice. When Manu was in, my eyes were on him as best as they could be in positional drills, a pit drill (1-on-1 pass rush vs OL) and team drills.
Positional drills
One of the biggest areas for concern with Manu has been his staying square as a blocker to a variably moving target. Lions offensive line coach Hank Fraley ran a quick drill that required the linemen (Manu et al) to keep their hips and shoulders synced up while moving laterally. Manu was a little cleaner in this drill on Friday than he was on Monday, the last time I paid attention to the line's positional work (they often do their drills in the farthest reaches of the distant end zone, usually behind the other position groups). Manu's first-step quickness and the power with which he can stomp a foot in the ground and drive laterally from it remain quite encouraging. The basketball background--he moved from Tonga to Canada to play basketball, not football--shows in these sorts of situations.
1-on-1
Manu got two reps (as did everyone) in the pit, both playing as a left tackle.
The first was a clean loss to Pat O'Connor, a bigger player (he's close to 300) who lined up tighter and a little more inside than a typical DE. O'Connor got under Manu's initial punch, ripped up with his left arm and leveraged himself off Manu's inside shoulder and chest to get a clean path to the "QB" (an assistant coach). O'Connor gave a subtle little jab to the outside to get Manu's eyes and weight/balance off a bit, and it worked. To Manu's credit, he tried to grab O'Connor's trail arm but he couldn't hold it.
The next rep was what you want to see from a goliath (listed this year at 6-7/350) like Manu. Smaller, speedier EDGE Isaac Ukwu tried to get upfield on the outside and then break back across Manu, but the big man kept his shoulders, feet and hips all together and nullified Ukwu. When the defender tried to hand swipe away and break free, Manu deftly deflected it and sent Ukwu dejectedly back to the defensive huddle. It was one of the best reps by any offensive tackle in the entire drill.
Team drills
During the team drills, Manu worked exclusively at left tackle. That became a bit of an issue for viewing purposes on a couple of reps due to the angle where I was situated; other players and coaches sometimes obscured the view, especially after the initial movement on two pass sets late in the drill.
From the notes, where I give a plus for a clear win and a minus for a clear loss:
In total, that's four plusses and 4.5 minuses, with several draws or plays where the action didn't merit either designation. The movement and ability to stay engaged in the run game appears to be coming along well. In general, assignments where Manu had only one target or task to worry about continue to do reasonably well for a football naif.
His feel for more complex assignments remains in dire need of more development, based on the last two practices and also earlier work from the spring OTA sessions. Manu's biggest struggles continue to come when he's setting up too high and narrow in a pass set, then almost overcorrecting and giving away lots of options for savvier defenders to beat him. That's the learning curve. Manu is definitely learning but still has a lot more to progress before the Lions can even think about having him active in a regular-season game, from what I've seen.
One other thing I really do like is Manu's willingness to listen to advice, be it from coaches or linemates or even the defender who just beat him. He's clearly trying his best, and while the head does hang at times after bad plays, he's still battling.