{"id":790517,"date":"2026-05-12T06:49:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/790517\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T06:49:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:49:17","slug":"mystery-draft-offer-couldnt-sway-giants-from-francis-mauigoa-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/790517\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery draft offer couldn’t sway Giants from Francis Mauigoa pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

The trade offer came in, and the Giants began weighing the reward of gaining better positioning later in the 2026 draft against the risk of losing the ability to add Francis Mauigoa.<\/p>\n

Verdict: rejected.<\/p>\n

So, what is Mauigoa\u2019s reaction to hearing that a team \u2014 maybe his adoptive-hometown Dolphins \u2014 might have been trying to trade up for him?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here, so ain\u2019t nothing they can do about it,\u201d Mauigoa cracked. \u201cFirst dibs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, the Giants are as happy to have Mauigoa at right guard as any teenager who called the \u201cshotgun\u201d seat before piling into an overcrowded car.<\/p>\n

Mauigoa took \u201cpretty much every rep\u201d during the two-day rookie minicamp<\/a>, according to head coach John Harbaugh, as he began his transition from right tackle at Miami.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooked like a natural at guard,\u201d Harbaugh added. \u201cSometimes, things happen a little quicker [at guard]. You have to get out of your stance a little quicker. We\u2019ll see when the pads come on; that will be another thing for him. To see him playing at guard for the first time, I thought he did really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewGiants center Francis Mauigoa (65), left, and Derrick Graham (76) ,right, during football practice. Noah K. Murray-NY Post<\/p>\n

The in-house production \u201cGiants Life\u201d revealed draft-night video of an unidentified team calling general manager Joe Schoen to offer a trade that he mulled over with the rest of the war room.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no guarantee he\u2019s going to be there [after a trade-down],\u201d Schoen told Harbaugh, seemingly referencing Mauigoa. \u201cI think they are coming up for an offensive lineman.\u201d<\/p>\n

The details of the offer are unclear, though Harbaugh was reluctant to give up pick No. 37 as part of the deal, which has prompted speculation that the Dolphins might have pitched No. 11 and No. 30 for No. 10 and No. 37.<\/p>\n

Schoen told his lieutenants that he wanted to \u201cjust stay and don\u2019t be cute.\u201d But if the two remaining players in the top five on the Giants draft board are \u201cboth gone, let\u2019s do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Saints drafted receiver Jordyn Tyson at No. 8, the Browns drafted offensive tackle Spencer Fano at No. 9, and the Giants rejected the mystery trade to call Mauigoa.<\/p>\n

\"FrancisFrancis Mauigoa of Miami celebrates after being selected tenth overall pick by the New York Giants. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI was excited,\u201d Mauigoa said. \u201cI\u2019m not an emotional type of guy, but internally, I was pumped. Miami was a big city. New York is a big city.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dolphins subsequently traded down to No. 12 and drafted offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor. If Mauigoa had landed in Miami, the American Samoa native could\u2019ve stayed in Florida, where his parents relocated while he attended high school at IMG Academy and then college.<\/p>\n

Instead, Mauigoa should be the lone new starter on the best Giants offensive line in 15 years. <\/p>\n

He will line up next to right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor<\/a>, a former guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to work my butt off to the standard and hopefully uplift that standard,\u201d Mauigoa said. \u201cWe\u2019re excited about each other; can\u2019t wait to move people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Mauigoa trained for the draft with former Giants center and fellow Hurricanes product Jon Feliciano and spoke with his college teammate Jalen Rivers \u2014 who transitioned from tackle to guard for the Bengals \u2014 before minicamp.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying at tackle, you have all the space, where at guard everything happens so fast,\u201d Mauigoa said. \u201cIt\u2019s not something I really need to work on \u2013 it\u2019s something that I need to get used to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo behind the scenes with Big Blue\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Giants by Paul Schwartz, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not completely new territory. Mauigoa sporadically hopped in at guard during some spring, summer and fall practices over three years just to build versatility under offensive line coach Alex Mirabal.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Mirabal teaching us jump set and everything, some stuff will work on the NFL level and some won\u2019t. It\u2019s a lot of tools in the belt,\u201d Mauigoa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Mirabal believed in knowing all the positions. If you play all the positions, you make yourself valuable. Also, if you play right tackle, right guard, center, you know everybody\u2019s job \u2014 and it makes it easier for you to know what you\u2019re doing and what your teammates are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The trade offer came in, and the Giants began weighing the reward of gaining better positioning later in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":790518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[39],"tags":[91156,4716,1232,237483,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-790517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-francis-mauigoa","tag-new-york-giants","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft-2026","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116560276478350802","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}