Anthony Rivardo
Giants rookie right guard Francis Mauigoa has practiced for two months without being allowed to hit anyone. The No. 10 overall pick spent OTAs and minicamp learning right guard, a spot he barely touched at Miami, where all but about 10 of his college snaps came at right tackle, in sessions where contact is prohibited and a 335-pound people-mover cannot actually move people.
The Giants put the pads on for the first time at The Greenbrier in three weeks, and the rookie the coaching staff penciled in as a Day 1 starter finally gets measured against real resistance. Jaxson Dart’s protection, John Harbaugh’s downhill running game, and a fully guaranteed $31.4 million investment all get their first honest data point.
The Résumé That Justified the Pick
Mauigoa started all 42 games of his Miami career at right tackle, never missing a start, and left as a consensus first-team All-American and the ACC’s Jacobs Blocking Trophy winner. PFF credited him with an 87.0 pass-blocking grade in his final season, the best mark among qualified FBS right tackles, and he allowed just one sack in 205 true pass sets with a 93.7% win rate on those snaps, second-best among draft-eligible tackles in the class.
Across 1,417 pass-blocking snaps in college, Mauigoa surrendered eight sacks, and five of them came as a freshman, so the career-long view holds up alongside the peak. The Giants invested accordingly, taking him 10th overall, which netted Mauigoa a four-year, $31.4 million rookie contract with a $19.3 million signing bonus, all of it guaranteed, with a fifth-year option attached to his first-round status.
Why Mauigoa is Moving to Guard, and Why the Pads Change Everything
The Giants drafted a decorated tackle and immediately moved him inside, taking over the right guard spot Greg Van Roten held for the past two seasons. Van Roten remains unsigned in free agency, and the team added Daniel Faalele behind the rookie rather than circling back to the veteran. The plan at the position is Mauigoa, full stop.
Spring practices told the staff almost nothing about whether the transition is working. Giants.com’s John Schmeelk named Mauigoa his player to watch at training camp for exactly that reason: “I want to see Francis ‘Sisi’ Mauigoa put the pads on and start hitting some people.”
Schmeelk pointed to the specific challenges waiting inside: defensive linemen aligned directly over him with less reaction time after the snap, and pulling assignments in Greg Roman’s gap-heavy run schemes that Mauigoa rarely executed in college. The Giants’ veteran defensive tackles, DJ Reader and Shelby Harris among them, know how to hold the point of attack and will give him a real stress test in camp team periods.
The new staff signed fullback Patrick Ricard and built the offensive identity around a power running game with play-action layered on top, which asks the interior three to displace defenders rather than just wall them off. Mauigoa’s profile as potentially the best people-mover on the roster’s interior is the bet the whole scheme leans on.
The Giants’ Offensive Line He Joins
Four of five starters return from 2025, with the rookie slotting into the only open seat.
| Position | Projected starter | 2026 situation |
|---|---|---|
| LT | Andrew Thomas | Returning starter, coming back from injury |
| LG | Jon Runyan | Returning starter |
| C | John Michael Schmitz | Returning starter |
| RG | Francis Mauigoa | Rookie, No. 10 overall pick |
| RT | Jermaine Eluemunor | Re-signed, returning starter |
The unit’s depth is also in better shape than it has been in years, with Faalele added inside and second-year lineman Marcus Mbow covering multiple spots. Mbow might be a hidden gem on the offensive line, and the whole projection still hinges on Andrew Thomas’ health at the other bookend.
The First Honest Answer Arrives in West Virginia
Rookies report July 23, the team runs its conditioning test at The Greenbrier on July 28, and the first open practice follows on July 30. Somewhere in that first padded week, Mauigoa lines up over a 330-pound veteran nose tackle with no red jersey rules protecting anyone, and the Giants learn whether the spring optimism was projection or preview.
Every rep he banked since April came with an asterisk. The pads take it off.
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