ALLEN PARK, Mich.— The decision to pack up his things and head to Arizona for the winter wasn’t all that difficult for Giovanni Manu last January.

But it wasn’t just the warm weather that was inviting for the native Tongan, coming at the end of a grueling rookie season in the NFL. No, it was the invitation itself. Because it came from Taylor Decker.

“It's easy, man,” said Manu, the mammoth offensive tackle who remains the biggest project — quite literally, at 6-foot-7 and 340 pounds — on the Detroit Lions’ roster this summer. “Like, he's the longest-tenured Lion for a reason, right? And my hopes — and every player’s hope when they enter the league — is to have that type of career. He stayed with one team. He's a Pro Bowler. He has had multiple contract extensions. You know, that's something I want to do.”

So it meant something late last season that, even as the Lions were churning toward the postseason — and Manu essentially was redshirting, as the only player on the playoff roster not to take a single snap all year — the Lions’ veteran left tackle decided to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“I asked him, ‘What's your recipe to success?’” said Manu, a fourth-round draft pick out of nowhere last year as the first-ever player selected out of the University of British Columbia. “And he just told me, ‘Come down to Arizona and train with me and learn from me.’ That was a no-brainer to me.”

He wasn’t alone. Lions teammates Jamarco Jones and Netane Muti also spent the winter at the same invite-only club in suburban Phoenix where former NFL star LeCharles Bentley has been training offensive linemen since 2008. Decker has been a regular there for his entire 10-year pro career, and Manu’s move was fully endorsed by Lions offensive line coach Hank Fraley, who said he likes "what LeCharles is about and how he gets the guys ready to play."

Manu could’ve stayed in the Detroit area and trained with All-Pro right tackle Penei Sewell, just like his rookie classmate Christian Mahogany did. But he laughed Tuesday when asked if Sewell, a fellow Polynesian, felt snubbed by his decision to fly south with Decker instead.

“Penei’s not mad,” said Manu, who moved from the South Pacific to Vancouver when he was 11 and only started playing football there because his high school didn't have a rugby team. “He’s chill. He's like a brother to me, too.”

'Drinking out of a fire hose'

That brotherhood among the offensive linemen is important for a variety of reasons. But particularly for a player like Manu, who arrived in Detroit with an understanding his rookie season would be a developmental year.

“I told him when we drafted him, there was going to be a lot that I was going to change with how he did things,” Fraley said of Manu, who was making a huge leap up in competition — and coaching, for that matter — going from Canadian college football to the pros.

Manu compared it to “drinking out of a fire hose,” and it was obvious he was drowning at the start of training camp last summer. But the difference between that and the way he looked in practice at the end of the season “was night and day,” general manager Brad Holmes said.

The difference now? They’re expecting much more.

“Now, it's can he take that next step?” Fraley said. "It's a huge step.”

A few days into this training camp, it’s impossible to judge the strides he has made. The Lions won’t even practice in pads for the first time until Friday. But Manu said the speed of the game is slowing down, and while he admits there are still too many mental errors, “I feel like I'm counting more times where I'm not hesitating compared to last year.”

His coaches are counting on that trend continuing as he gets considerably more work this summer, especially with Decker sidelined for the first couple of weeks of camp after offseason shoulder surgery. Manu is working as the second-team left tackle behind Dan Skipper in practice this week, “and I think more than anything he just needs reps,” Decker said. “I'm excited to see him get more opportunities in the preseason.”

The extra exhibition game will help, certainly. And the more he plays, Manu said, the more his confidence grows.

“And that's something that as a left tackle you need, because you're protecting J.G.'s blind side, you know?” Manu said, referring Jared Goff. “That's the franchise right there.”

And that’s the wide-eyed hope here, which is why Decker’s mentorship means just a little bit more. As Manu put it Tuesday, “Hopefully one day I get to fill his shoes.”

On the right track

For now, though, it’s about getting the footwork right. And finding the right balance as he punches and counters and pulls, which isn’t easy when the competition ratchets up along with the coaches' voices on the practice field.

“He’ll take two steps up and then one step back, and so that’s kind of where he’s at,” head coach Dan Campbell said Tuesday when asked about Manu’s progress. “He’ll have a good day and then there’s a couple of things that’ll slide that we’ve got to keep working on with him. And he knows this. As long as he keeps pushing, he’ll be fine.”

He certainly feels better to start this camp, having shed nearly 25 pounds since the start of OTAs in April. Manu said he’s down to 21% body fat — on the low end for a lineman — and it shows in his quickness and endurance.

“It's like unhooking the trailer and you just go, right?” he said. smiling.

How far he can go, and how quickly, remains to be seen. But with a year under his belt, and some guidance from vets like Decker, he does seem to be on the right track.

“I just want to show them that I'm the player that they wanted me to be,” Manu said. “I'm the player that they drafted, and I'm the player that they saw towards the end of the year, with that aggression, that high confidence. I want to take it up a notch from last year, and I want to prove to them that I've got what it takes to step foot on that field when I need to be called on. So that's what I'm gonna do.”

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