By Howard Tsumura
VANCOUVER — Giovanni Manu came to the Detroit Lions draped in a blank canvas.
Now, two NFL training camps later, the 6-foot-7, 350-pound former UBC Thunderbirds standout from Pitt Meadows has put himself in the big picture.
“Short story is, if they told me I had to play left tackle against the Green Bay Packers this upcoming week because Taylor couldn’t go, I’d be ready to go,” he said last week, referencing the Lions’ 10-year veteran tackle Taylor Decker and the Lions’ first regular season opponent as the 2025 season is set to fully open this Sunday.
Manu, Detroit’s fourth-round pick in the 2024 NFL draft, spoke to Varsity Letters while in town Aug. 28 to watch UBC’s Canada West opener against the Manitoba Bisons at Thunderbird Stadium.
And while Decker is fully expected to suit up and protect the blindside of quarterback Jared Goff when Detroit opens defence of its NFC North title Sunday (1:25 p.m.) on the road against their division rivals, there is distinct news value to be gleaned by the confidence in the voice of Manu, who begins his second season in Detroit as No. 2 on the depth chart at left tackle.
Last season, as a rookie, his education was less a crash course than a crash curriculum.
If you broke it all down, it was a universe unto itself when it came time to not only the speed of the game and the nuances of his position, but also the mental state he needed to maintain in order to truly process all that was being put on his plate.
To that end, as his canvas slowly but surely revealed the markings of wisdom attained, substantial progress was being made.
And by the time Giovanni Manu returned to UBC sporting his custom-made Jahmyr Gibbs-David Montgomery baseball cap, gifted by the team’s running back duo exclusively to the members of its offensive line, it was clear he had found his football family.
THE BOON OF MENTORSHIP
All of those within the UBC football family know about the size of Big Gio’s heart, about his caring personality and most of all, a level of inner fight borne from his hunger to learn as a native of Tonga who moved to Canada at the age of 11 and eventually found the football field with the Pitt Meadows Marauders.
So to gain the friendship and subsequent mentorship of Taylor Decker, the franchise’s most deeply invested veteran, and the guy who was already playing the position Detroit’s braintrust felt was where Manu’s future lay?
“It meant everything coming in as a rookie. He knew I was coming in as a tackle, too, and you never know how those vets are going to act towards that,” said Manu. “But he didn’t look at it any other way. Halfway through the season we developed a bond and it was nice to have a guy like that… (now) it’s even beyond football.”
That’s because Manu, through Decker’s recommendation, got a chance to train alongside his mentor in the off-season down in Phoenix at O-Line Performance, a place that bills itself as ‘The World’s Premiere Offensive Lineman Training Club’.
“It was ‘Where do I go to train?’” Manu asked himself following the Lions’ 15-2 regular season and quick playoff ouster at the hands of the Washington Commanders. “Do I come back to Canada? I went to him for advice and he just said ‘Come train with me’. Towards the end of (2024), that’s when things really started to pick up for me where I was really feeling confident… that I can play this game and I deserve to be here. All the vets felt it too and so did Decker. He saw the potential in me and he said ‘Come train with me and I will teach you what it takes to be a starting tackle in the NFL.’”
The results?
Lions’ beat writers, for the most part, have reported that while he has improved from his first season, the requisite consistency to stack one productive day after another is still a work in progress.
For his part, however, Manu has never lost sight of the opportunity that he has been afforded over his first two NFL training camps to get huge reps at the left tackle spot.
As camp neared its end, the brief break ahead of the regular season afforded Manu the chance to once again return to Vancouver for a few days to be with his friends and family as well as former UBC teammates and coaches. It also gave him a chance to speak to the dynamics at play (Decker underwent off-season surgery on his right shoulder and missed the start of training camp) which ultimately provided him an opportunity to take his most meaningful reps yet.
“We had two practices before we broke here and Taylor was down because he was rehabbing his shoulder and I basically was the starting left tackle those two days,” said Manu who just hours before speaking that day had learned that Dallas had traded pass rusher Micah Parsons to his team’s Week 1 foes from Green Bay.
Decker is of course expected to start on Sunday, but what if for any reason, he needs to take a snap or two off?
Might that be the time Manu makes his official NFL debut?
When asked about the possibility of just such a scenario and the fact that if Parsons plays, the two could come face to face, Manu was quick to reply.
“Yup, I’ll be ready to go… I pass blocked Aidan Hutchinson all week,” he said of the Lions’ own superstar pass rusher who has looked fantastic coming off a season-ending leg injury last November. “And I would say (Hutchinson’s) better (than Parsons), so, yeah.”
Manu was especially energized about getting such quality reps late in camp against a player of Hutchinson’s calibre, as well as veteran defensive end Marcus Davenport.
“Yeah, me and him had a competitive two days and yeah, I love it,” he said of Hutchinson. “That is something that I will always ask for. Going up against him makes me better, because it’s like they say, iron sharpens iron.”
Veteran Lions beat reporter Justin Rogers, who on a daily basis dissects every strand of the team’s DNA through his incredibly comprehensive offerings at the Detroit Football Network (detroitfootball.net), Thursday published a story on Manu in which he wrote: “It’s not that Manu can’t physically handle Davenport and Hutchinson. Well, as reasonably as anyone could hope to handle Hutchinson. Those who watched their one-on-one battles in practice have witnessed Manu get wins against the best his teammates have to offer. Still, the techniques aren’t all the way there yet. He’s still a long way off from being as consistent as he needs to be, despite earning steadily better internal grades during the team’s four preseason contests.”
Rogers’ analysis is the kind of update from the trenches that Manu’s local fanbase can trust as a measuring stick as his second season is set to open.
ON TEAMMATES, LEGACY AND THE BIG PICTURE
Giovanni Manu was already bursting with strength and athleticism during his time with the Thunderbirds where both he and Chicago Bears left tackle Theo Benedet manned the bookends of UBC’s offensive line.
Now, his dedication has lifted that physique to the next level, and that’s something his university coaches all acknowledge.
“Gio is a hard worker, too and he transformed himself from last year to this year just in terms of how his body looks and the training and coaching he’s had,” said UBC recruiting coordinator Shomari Williams. “For him, it’s still a process where he will keep on learning the ropes, but he has all the physical tools, and all the ability and the wherewithal to do it. I think Gio, once he taps into who he is and really refines himself, I think he could be unstoppable.”
Manu, of course, has already done a ton to help inspire the current iteration of the No. 8-ranked ’Birds (1-0), who head into Saskatoon tonight (6 p.m.) looking to beat the No. 7 Saskatchewan Huskies (1-0) on the road for the first time since 2017.
In fact, when asked if he had any words of wisdom for his direct successor at left tackle, a 6-foot-7, 300-pound second-year out of the Kelowna area named Caleb Cunningham, Manu was happy to speak.
“Man, just keep going to work, trust these coaches, do everything (head) coach (Blake) Nill says, and (strength and conditioning) coach (Joe) McCullum… these guys will develop you as long as you go 110 per cent in whatever it is they tell you to do.”
It worked well for Manu, and for Benedet as well.
In fact the two former teammates will have a chance to renew acquaintances when the Lions host the Bears in its Ford Field opener on Sept. 14.
The pair have maintained their bond and Manu couldn’t help but express his joy at seeing Benedet make the Bears’ active roster as a 2024 undrafted free agent.
“I am happy for Theo. I texted him right away ’cause I think I was more happy that he made the 53 over me, ’cause I would say that the whole day I was searching the Chicago Bears roster on Twitter, because as much success as I’ve had, I’ll say it to this day, Theo is the greatest teammate I’ve ever had. I went to war with that guy every day on this field and we shared the highs and the lows here.
Manu, in explaining the story of the Gibbs-Montgomery baseball cap and the unity he has built with his fellow offensive linemen like the perennial All-Pro right tackle Penei Sewell and veteran Dan Skipper, seems surely to have found his best fit in an organization that has been willing to show patience while banking on his substantial potential.
And his bond with the veteran Decker, he says, extends beyond the actual game itself.
“He asks me how I am doing mentally because he knows this game can be stressful,” Manu explains. “So it’s really nice to have a guy like that in your corner, because talk about tough times… he’s been through the thunderstorms and sunshine in Detroit. He’s been through everything.”
That’s the same kind of journey Giovanni Manu learned long ago to embrace.
And these days his canvas is no longer blank.
Instead, in a manner of speaking, his own battles through the ups and downs have revealed what he has come to know as the big picture, one which he now knows he has every chance to be a part of.
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