The New York Giants crushed the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft. New York scooped up Arvell Reese at five and added an excellent offensive lineman in Francis Mauigoa at 10. Both are excellent prospects, but New York needs to figure out where is the best position to use them in 2026.
The Giants will change Mauigoa’s position, moving him inside to guard according to GM Joe Schoen.
“We’re going to put him inside at guard,” Schoen said after the first round, per the team website. “He can certainly play tackle. Sometimes we call these schools and get the film, and they have two really good rushers down there in Miami in [Ahkeem] Mesidor and [Rueben] Bain, and to watch the practice film — he’s going against NFL dudes on a daily basis, and doing a really good job, it was pretty impressive. He can certainly always bump back out to tackle at any point. We’re going to start him at guard.”
The Giants have Andrew Thomas and Jermaine Eleumunor as bookend tackles, so there’s no need to force Mauigoa to play that position. Instead, he projects to compete for a starting spot at right guard with Daniel Faalele.
Some NFL personnel believe that Mauigoa has Pro Bowl upside, which hopefully makes fans more comfortable taking a guard in the top 10.
Schoen also spoke about Mauigoa’s back injury, which threatened to harm his stock leading up to draft day. Unsurprisingly, the Giants are comfortable with his health status.
“Joe Schoen said they’re comfortable with Mauigoa’s back,” The Athletic’s Dan Duggan wrote on Thursday. “He noted that new head athletic trainer Adam Bennett was in the same role at Miami throughout Mauigoa’s career.”
It will be exciting to see who New York adds on Day 2 of the draft on Friday night.
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