Breaking: Detroit Lions Agree Contract With Rams To Sign In….
Another former member of the Detroit Lions roster has found a new home.
Wide receiver DJ Chark, who played for the Lions in 2022, has signed a one-year deal to join the Los Angeles Chargers. Chark spent the 2023 season playing for the Carolina Panthers.
He joins a new-look Chargers organization under first-year head coach Jim Harbaugh, who has overhauled the Chargers’ receiving corps.
Longtime franchise standout Keenan Allen was traded to the Chicago Bears, while Mike Williams was released and later signed with the New York Jets. Chark will team up with Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert.
Last season with the Panthers, Chark logged 35 receptions for 525 yards and five scores. He was brought to Carolina to be a top wideout for rookie quarterback Bryce Young, but Young struggled throughout the campaign.
Prior to going to Carolina, Chark spent a year with the Lions. He was limited to 11 games by injuries and finished the year with 30 catches for 502 yards and three scores. After missing a chunk of the middle of the season, he returned late in the year and made a big impact.
Perhaps Chark’s biggest moment of the 2022 campaign was the game-clinching fourth-down conversion to help the team defeat the Green Bay Packers in a primetime matchup in Week 17. That win helped generate momentum for the Lions in 2023, when they clinched their first division championship in 30 years.
In his career, Chark has logged 212 receptions for 3,069 yards and 23 scores over six NFL seasons. His best year came in 2019 with the Jacksonville Jaguars, when he surpassed 1,000 receiving yards and earned Pro Bowl honors.
The Detroit Lions added developmental offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, and he’ll have a respected mentor in Penei Sewell to work with.
It’s not every day that players get a chance to work with their idols, but Giovanni Manu will get that opportunity as he joins the Detroit Lions.
Manu was a surprise fourth-round pick of the Lions, and in the aftermath, it was clear he liked his landing spot given he gets a chance to play with Penei Sewell and develop at his own pace.
In an interview, Manu lauded what Sewell means to Polynesians and noted Sewell’s mpact on his motivation to make the NFL.
“I look up to Penei (Sewell) a lot. I do study a lot of his film. I think he’s the best tackle in the league right now. He moves so fluid for how big he is. Not just that, but he’s an inspriation to the Polynesian community. I remember when I was in college, I watched his draft day process. It was jst bascially a vlog of his whole day of being drafted. I remember he ended the vlog by saying ‘any Polynesian kids out there’ and he named all the islands and I remember he said Tongan, he said ‘if you kids out there want to make it to the NFL, you can truly make it if you put your mind to it.’ I remember I was in my second year of college and he said that. I remember him saying that, and it really motivated me. I told myself, ‘if one of my fellow Polynesian brothers could make it which is him, and he’s giving me words of motivation, there’s no reason I can’t either.’ So he’s a true inspiration to not only Samoa but the whole Polynesian commuinity. It’s great that I’ll be playing with a guy like that. I just hope to soak up as much information and technique from him.”
