You can argue with the pick, but the plan made sense. Two years ago, the Lions drafted Giovanni Manu as a project and a potential successor to Taylor Decker. Manu's time could arrive next season. Whether he's ready is a much different question.
The Lions aren't banking on it.
"Manu, he’s taken steps," GM Brad Holmes said at his end-of-season press conference. "I’m not going to sit here and say that we feel convicted that he’s ready to be a major contributor. We hope that he is. We’re just going to have to wait to see in terms of when we get started in the offseason program, how he comes back in the OTA's. And look, as always, he’s going to have to win a job. He’s going to have to beat somebody out."
Manu made his first start at left tackle in place of the injured Decker early this season against the Bengals, and it did not go well. The Lions won, but Manu surrendered two sacks of Jared Goff, the second of which ended in Detroit's most important player getting clobbered. Manu landed on injured reserve with a knee injury shortly thereafter and did not play again.
Since the Lions traded a 2025 third-round pick to move up and take him in the fourth round of the 2024 draft, Manu has 69 total offensive snaps at tackle, almost all of them coming against the Bengals. At this point, a highly-drafted rookie likely represents a higher floor at left tackle next season than Manu.
The Lions are in an uncomfortable position with Decker mulling retirement after 10 seasons, similar to the predicament they found themselves in last year upon the abrupt retirement of Frank Ragnow. Detroit didn't have sufficient contingency plans in place once Ragnow made his decision after the draft and the main wave of free agency, and center was a weakness for the offense all season.
"I'm not sure what Decker’s going to decide to do," said Holmes. "But not only will it have to be urgent this offseason, it's been urgent in the past. And look, we've drafted. Two years ago, we drafted Manu as more of a developmental guy thinking that he's going to have some years to take some steps forward. But it would be irresponsible for us to just go into (next season) thinking that, 'Well, we drafted a developmental player a couple of years ago. He’s going to be the guy.'"
The offensive line was the Lions' engine when the team won back to back NFC North titles. It stalled this season when they sunk to last place. Repairing it is one of Holmes' top priorities this offseason, which won't be easy with possibly two huge holes to fill.
"I don’t think that we’ve ever gone into an offseason with a question mark or a hole where we didn’t attack that position with urgency," said Holmes. "But sometimes it just doesn’t work out as well as we want it to."
Manu is a good example. The Lions, wrong or right, made an aggressive move to go get him in the draft, seeing a high-ceiling prospect who could grow under Decker's wing. Decker more than held up his end of the deal the past two years, mentoring Manu from the moment he arrived. He even hosted Manu at his training facility in Arizona last offseason. Manu, a mountain of a man, just hasn't developed as smoothly as the Lions hoped. He turns 25 this month.
The Lions haven't lost faith in Manu as a project. As a player who can step into a major role next season, they are right to have reservations. Manu can't be viewed as the solution if Decker is indeed done, nor can he be considered Plan B in the meantime. The range of outcomes is still too wide.
Both this offseason and next season are huge for Manu in the scope of his career.
"As much as we’re going to surround resources around him, he’s going to have to do his part, too, to make sure he’s doing everything necessary to be as good of a football player as he can be," said Holmes.