{"id":1001769,"date":"2026-09-15T20:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T20:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1001769\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T20:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T20:45:14","slug":"giants-francis-mauigoa-impresses-in-nfl-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1001769\/","title":{"rendered":"Giants’ Francis Mauigoa impresses in NFL debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Francis Mauigoa<\/a>\u2019s name hardly came up during the broadcast of the Giants<\/a>\u2019 season-opening win against the Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n

And that spoke volumes.<\/p>\n

The rookie right guard was so steady in his NFL debut that there were no instances of him missing an assignment or of a defender blowing past him to mention.<\/p>\n

In fact, Mauigoa didn\u2019t permit a single pressure on his 36 pass blocks, according to Next Gen Stats.<\/p>\n

Mauigoa also recorded a 75% run block win rate in Sunday night\u2019s 28-20 victory<\/a> at MetLife Stadium, contributing to a Giants offense that imposed its will against the Dallas defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing him running to the ball, seeing him finish blocks, try to put guys in the dirt, that\u2019s what you want for offensive linemen \u2014 especially at guard,\u201d Giants fullback Patrick Ricard said Tuesday of Mauigoa.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see that for the first game, it\u2019s really encouraging. You want offensive linemen to set the tone for the whole offense. Me, seeing that, it makes me want to be doing that every play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Giants selected the 6-6, 335-pound Mauigoa at No. 10 overall in April\u2019s draft \u2014 the pick they received in the blockbuster trade sending defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals.<\/p>\n

Mauigoa, 21, played right tackle in college at Miami, but his profile as a mauling road grader made him an ideal fit at guard for a Giants team that new head coach John Harbaugh is building around physicality.<\/p>\n

That physicality was evident during a Week 1 in which the Giants rushed for 165 yards, converted 9-of-11 third downs and dominated the time of possession (36:40 to 23:20).<\/p>\n

The Cowboys possessed the ball only twice in the second half because the Giants put together a pair of touchdown drives that exceeded eight minutes, then ran out the final 5:21.<\/p>\n

Each of the Giants\u2019 five starting lineman \u2014 as well as Ricard \u2014 recorded a run block win rate of better than 69%, and none of them were charged with a sack.<\/p>\n

Afterward, right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor praised Mauigoa as \u201cenergetic\u201d and \u201cphysical as hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat first drive, we were looking at each other like, \u2018Damn, this is crazy as hell.\u2019 We\u2019re not used to running it that much,\u201d Eluemunor said of the offensive line as a whole, referring to a 10-play, 83-yard drive that included eight runs and ended with a Cam Skattebo rushing touchdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially the way we were running it, and just seeing how Skatt would break through the line of scrimmage, we were handling the line of scrimmage the entire game.\u201d<\/p>\n

When they selected him, the Giants viewed Mauigoa as the missing piece on an offensive line they\u2019ve invested heavily in.<\/p>\n

The Giants drafted All-Pro left tackle Andrew Thomas with the No. 4 pick in 2020, then signed him to a five-year, $117.5 million extension in 2023.<\/p>\n

They used a second-round pick on center John Michael Schmitz in 2023, while Eluemunor (three years, $39 million) and left guard Jon Runyan Jr. (a two-year, $22 million extension) both signed new contracts with the Giants this year.<\/p>\n

Their two-year, $7.6 million contract with Ricard \u2014 who followed Harbaugh from Baltimore \u2014 is the NFL\u2019s biggest deal for a fullback.<\/p>\n

And while Sunday\u2019s win provided a nationally televised showcase of the new-look Giants, their offensive line is nothing new to the Giant defenders who battled them throughout training camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see guys straining to finish. You see guys straining to get that extra block in. It shows up when these backs are breaking these big runs,\u201d linebacker Tremaine Edmunds said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not surprised. The way that we practice, I\u2019ve been seeing it all camp. I\u2019ve seen them go out and execute and have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Francis Mauigoa\u2019s name hardly came up during the broadcast of the Giants\u2019 season-opening win against the Dallas Cowboys.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1001770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[230,7,7779,519,6,18505,7401],"class_list":["post-1001769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-cowboys","tag-football","tag-francis-mauigoa","tag-giants","tag-nfl","tag-patrick-ricard","tag-tremaine-edmunds"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117277014393102990","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1001769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1001770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1001769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1001769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}