Ideally, a team with Super Bowl aspirations will focus on adding players who have a chance to immediately contribute in the draft. If they trade up to take someone, and/or surrender a future draft pick to make that trade up, it feels mandatory to get someone who could contribute right away.
The Detroit Lions entered Day 3 of April's draft without a fourth-round pick. Their second trade up for a pick in that round, where they took Sione Vaki, is looking pretty darn good right now.
But their first trade into that fourth round, sending a 2025 third-round pick to the New York Jets to take University of British Columbia offensive tackle Giovanni Manu at pick 126, was done knowing Manu was a developmental prospect who would not play this year.
At first, Manu seemed to reveal a plan to move him to guard, adding (unnecessarily?) to his NFL learning curve. That has since shifted, with him playing tackle in OTAs, training camp and preseason games.
Lions' mistake drafting Giovanni Manu in new spotlight now
Since the pads came on at Lions' training camp, and between the two preseason games to this point, wide receiver depth has become a concern. Twice in the span of three days before the second preseason game, head coach Dan Campbell called for someone to step up.
If only something could have been done to help that situation before now....
Mike Payton of AtoZ Sports has consistently spotlighted the Lions' lack of wide receiver depth. In one of his latest pieces, he listed some wide receivers they could have moved up for and taken in the third round of the draft, surely using pick 126 to do so.
- Malachi Corley
- Jermaine Burton
- Roman Wilson
- Jalen McMillan
- Luke McCaffrey
- Troy Franklin
- Devontez Walker
- Javon Baker
After the draft, due to the options that were still available at pick 126 but not going aggressive to suggest a trade up or a reach for someone, we didn't put a wide receiver on our list of four players the Lions should've drafted instead of Manu with that pick.
But if Brad Holmes was willing to surrender what will be around a top-100 pick in next year's draft to take Manu, doing the same as part of a move up for a wide receiver shouldn't have been out of the question. Maybe there was an attempt and it just couldn't be done.
The Lions will have to dedicate a spot on the 53-man roster to a player who is line for a redshirt rookie season, while the bill for not adding a wide receiver of any significant note comes due. Even if Manu becomes a top-end starter in the future, it may have come at the expense of flimsy belief in what the Lions had down the depth chart at wide receiver heading toward a season with high expectations.