VANCOUVER – It's rare enough for a U SPORTS football product to find his way onto an NFL training camp roster and rarer still to have three of them – all from the same team. This is precisely the scenario for a trio of UBC Thunderbird alumni as offensive linemen
Giovanni Manu,
Theo Benedet and Dakoda Shepley are all in the midst of attempting to secure their respective spots on a coveted 53-man week one roster.
While Manu and Benedet are going through the NFL training camp paces for the first time, it's old hat for Shepley who has 13 regular season NFL games under his belt having first attended a training camp with the New York Jets back in 2018, three years after helping the T-Birds secure the 2015 Vanier Cup Championship.
The 6-foot-5, 290 pound Windsor, Ontario native played his first NFL game for the San Francisco 49ers in 2020. Picked up by Seattle prior to the start of the 2021 season, the offensive tackle appeared in eight games for the Seahawks that year.
2022 saw Shepley signed by the Dallas Cowboys for whom he played in four games that season. Following a brief stint with the Indianapolis Colts, Shepley returned to America's Team earlier this year after singing a reserve/future contract.
Splitting last season between the Colts' and Cowboys' practice squads, the 29 year-old Shepley is battling to be part of Dallas' week one roster when they begin the new campaign in Cleveland.
Manu has already made UBC history after becoming the first T-Bird to be selected in the NFL Draft when the Detroit Lions took the offensive tackle in the fourth round back in April.
The 6-foot-8, 350 pound Manu quickly signed a four-year rookie contract and is back in the Motor City hoping to secure his spot on one of the NFL's most promising teams heading into the 2024 season. A fourth round offensive lineman would normally be tabbed as a longshot to make the active roster in his rookie year, but the Tongan born Manu has a work ethic like few others and no one should be surprised how his training camp audition turns out.
Moments after the 2024 NFL Draft concluded back in April, two-time JP Metras Trophy winner
Theo Benedet signed as an undrafted free agent with the Chicago Bears. Now, the North Vancouver product is looking to parlay that into a spot on the Bears' offensive line.
Like Manu, Benedet was a massive piece of UBC's Hardy Cup and Mitchell Bowl Championship season in 2023. The 6-foot-7, 305 pound tackle was highly sought after following his history making final season in the blue and gold and has put himself in a solid position to at the very least compete for a practice squad position, if not a spot on the 53-man roster.
Only three Thunderbirds have previously played in an NFL regular season game, including Shepley. If Manu and Benedet continue on their respective trajectories, it may only be a matter of time until that number rises.
