Canadian offensive lineman Giovanni Manu out long-term for Detroit Lions with non-football injury

Photo: Jeff Nguyen/Detroit Lions

Canadian offensive lineman Giovanni Manu has suffered another setback with the Detroit Lions, as he was placed on the active/non-football injury list on Wednesday.

The move came as a surprise given that Manu participated in the team’s first practice session and that the NFI designation is reserved for players who suffer an injury away from their teams. Head coach Dan Campbell cleared up the confusion on Thursday, telling reporters that Manu arrived with an undisclosed injury.

“He had an injury, a previous injury over the summer, that was not disclosed,” Campbell said. “He came off the practice field (on Wednesday), didn’t feel good, got it checked. Sure enough, that’s what it was. So, he will be out for a period of time. I don’t know how long that’s going to be. Call it 12 weeks. Fourteen weeks. I don’t know. We’ll figure it out down the road, but he is NFI.”

The Lions traded up to select Manu in the fourth round, 126th overall, during the 2024 NFL Draft out of the University of British Columbia. That made him the first U Sports player to be drafted by an NFL team since David Onyemata was selected out of the University of Manitoba in 2016. He spent his entire rookie season in a reserve role, without playing a game, and has received mixed reviews from Campbell regarding his development.

Manu appeared in four games in 2025 and made his first career NFL start in Week 5 against the Cincinnati Bengals, helping the Lions win 37-24. The six-foot-seven, 350-pound blocker started at left tackle and allowed two sacks on 28 pass-blocking snaps, which earned him a 42.2 grade from Pro Football Focus.

Campbell called the performance “up and down,” and Manu was vocal about his dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, that game also resulted in a knee injury, and he was placed on injured reserve the following week. He would eventually return to practice late in the year but did not play in another game, with Campbell publicly stating that his activation from IR was to give him much-needed practice reps.

Manu worked throughout the offseason with former Lions offensive tackle Taylor Decker and was expected to compete for a backup role in training camp, but his development has once again been stalled by injury. He continues to count against the team’s 90-man offseason roster limit while on the NFI list, but can be moved to the reserve/non-football injury list after training camp cuts are made, which would exempt him from the 53-man active roster limit. Players on that list are ineligible to play for at least the first four weeks of the season, and only two can be activated in a given year.

Born in Tonga and raised in Pitt Meadows, B.C., Manu was a two-time second-team U Sports All-Canadian while at UBC. He has earned over $2.1 million through his first two seasons in the NFL and was scheduled to collect another $1.2 million this season, though the Lions are not required to pay him his base salary while on the NFI list. His current contract runs through the 2027 season.