Giovanni
Manu.
Giovanni
Manu.
British Columbia· 6'7"· 352 lb· 4.96s 40
"The most extreme trait bet of the 2024 class: a Tongan-born basketball center who grew into a 6-7, 352-pound left tackle in Canada, and whom Detroit paid a third-round pick to move up and develop."Pre-draft read
Manu was UBC's left tackle, a 6-7, 352-pound blocker who moved like a man 60 pounds lighter and buried U Sports defenders once his hands landed. The traits jumped off the tape: a long, easy kick slide, real bend for the frame, and the raw power to walk edge defenders backward on down blocks.
The problem was everything between the traits. His hands arrived late and wide, his pad level rose through contact, and he leaned instead of striking, turning wins into stalemates. In the run game he was a mauler on angle blocks and comfortable pulling, and the flashes of him climbing to linebackers hinted at a starting NFL tackle. The signature was the disconnect: no prospect in the class had a wider gap between physical ceiling and technical floor.
A gap and duo run scheme with vertical pass sets, ideally in an offense with an established line that can redshirt him — power angles let him use mass instead of asking him to reach and fit on the move.
Year 1: inactive or swing depth while a hands-on line coach rebuilds his strike timing and pad level. Ceiling: multi-year starting left tackle whose length and movement make him a top-half NFL blocker.
A wide-zone, high-tempo offense that needs him starting immediately and asks him to reach-block backside 3-techniques and climb to moving linebackers every snap, where late hands and a tall base get exposed.
Position is unsettled: Detroit moved him to guard in 2025-26, where his reach matters less and his leverage problem matters more.
Giovanni Manu #76 UBC Football All-Canadian Tape 2023
Full 2023 UBC cutup at left tackle: the kick slide, the down-block power and the late hands all on the same reel.
Giovanni Manu #76 University of British Columbia Pro Day
The pro day that made him a draft pick — testing and position drills at 352 pounds in front of 16 NFL teams.
Judging Giovanni Manu's First Start — Detroit Lions Film Study
All-22 review of his Week 5 2025 debut start at left tackle in Cincinnati.
Manu was the 2024 class's most extreme trait bet: a Tongan-born, Pitt Meadows-raised basketball center who came to football late and grew into a 6-7, 352-pound left tackle at the University of British Columbia, a program that had never produced an NFL draft pick.
He started every game after his redshirt year — 33 at left tackle and six at left guard — and earned Canada West all-star recognition in 2022 and 2023, dominating a level of competition that told evaluators almost nothing about NFL projection. He was not invited to the Combine, so the only public testing came at UBC's pro day in front of 16 NFL teams: 4.96 in the 40 and a 33.5-inch vertical at 352 pounds, numbers that would have been near the top of the tackle class. The flags were obvious and stacked: hand timing, pad level, pass-set discipline, and a résumé built entirely against U Sports edges.
Boards had him as a late Day 3 developmental swing, and several analysts openly called the pick a reach. Brad Holmes disagreed enough to send a 2025 third-round pick to the Jets to move up for him at 126, buying a multi-year project behind an offensive line that could afford to wait.
- 01
Frame and length
6-7, 352 pounds with the kind of mass and reach that lets him cover rushers up before they can build a plan against him.
- 02
Movement for the size
a 4.96 forty and 33.5-inch vertical at 352 pounds; the kick slide is smooth and he covers ground laterally like a much lighter tackle.
- 03
Raw power at the point
when his hands land inside he uproots defenders on down blocks and generates real vertical movement in the run game.
- 04
Recovery athleticism
the basketball background shows in how quickly he redirects and gets back in front after being beaten off the snap.
- 05
Work ethic and trajectory
three years removed from picking up the sport seriously, his year-over-year tape improvement was steep and still climbing.
- 01
Hand timing
strikes late and wide, letting rushers into his frame first and turning what should be finished reps into wrestling matches.
- 02
Pad level
plays tall out of his stance and rises through contact, which lets shorter defenders work under him and reset the line of scrimmage.
- 03
Pass-set discipline
oversets against speed and gets caught leaning, leaving the inside shoulder soft against any counter back across his face.
- 04
Level of competition
every rep came against U Sports defenders; there is no evidence on tape of him handling an NFL-caliber pass rush.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.96sp50
- Vertical
- 33.5inp50
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
Per Detroit's official pre-draft bio, Manu started every game after his redshirt season at UBC: 33 starts at left tackle and six at left guard. U Sports does not publish a verified season-by-season games/starts table for him, so no season rows are listed rather than estimating. Offensive linemen do not accumulate box-score statistics.
Honors
- Canada West all-star (2022, 2023)
- First UBC Thunderbird ever drafted into the NFL
- 39 career starts at UBC (33 at LT, 6 at LG)
Late-to-the-sport international project with rare tools who never converts practice reps into a stable NFL role.
The payoff if the hands and leverage ever catch up to the frame — a mountain at tackle who erases edges when technique is clean.
Enormous physical talent whose NFL career amounts to a handful of snaps before the league moves on.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Detroit treated him exactly like the project he was. Manu spent his rookie 2024 season on the 53-man roster without playing a regular-season snap, working as a developmental piece behind a settled line. In 2025 he dressed early in the year, then made his first career start at left tackle in Week 5 at Cincinnati, playing roughly 62 offensive snaps in a win — his only start through two seasons, and part of a 69-snap season sample too small for anyone to grade honestly. The Lions also began sliding him inside to guard that year, an admission that his length was being outrun by his footwork at tackle. That experiment carried into 2026, when the guard competition was cut short: Detroit placed him on the Active/NFI list on July 30 after the first camp practice, with Dan Campbell saying he would be out a while.
In hindsight the cost is the story. The traits were as advertised and the tape did improve, but Detroit paid a 2025 third-round pick to move up for a player who has produced one start in three years and is still looking for a position. That is a steep price for a lottery ticket, and it has not cashed.
Data note: Per Detroit's official pre-draft bio, Manu started every game after his redshirt season at UBC: 33 starts at left tackle and six at left guard. U Sports does not publish a verified season-by-season games/starts table for him, so no season rows are listed rather than estimating. Offensive linemen do not accumulate box-score statistics.