Former New York Giants offensive lineman Jon Feliciano doesn’t hide his feelings when it comes to what kind of career he believes guard Francis Mauigoa, selected 10th by the Giants in last month’s 2026 NFL Draft, will have.
“I think he’ll be in the [Giants] Ring of Honor if he stays with the Giants his whole career,” Feliciano said in an exclusive interview with Big Blue View. “I think he’s really good. If I’m a GM, he’s one of the players I want to start a team with.
“I see him having a minimal 10-year
career. That’s crazy, because in 10 years he’ll be 30. So he’ll play as long as he wants to play, and I’m excited to watch.”
Feliciano had a nine-year NFL career, including spending the 2022 season as the Giants’ starting center. These days, he trains up-and-coming offensive linemen. He spent two months working with Mauigoa at Triple F Elite Sports Training in Tennessee during the pre-draft process.
Feliciano and Mauigoa knew each other prior to that training since both played for Miami. They had gotten to know each other a couple of years ago when alumni offensive linemen were brought in to help players on the Hurricanes’ roster at the time.
Feliciano knew from seeing the 6-foot-6, 329-pound Maigoa up close and watching his early career film from Miami that “he was gonna go places.”
Working up close with the Giants’ 20-year-old starting right guard only confirmed what Feliciano already thought he knew.
“He’s really dang good,” Feliciano said.
“This dude was literally the first guy at the gym every day. He stayed the longest. When he felt like things weren’t going as he wanted, like, hey, I want to do more work. I feel like I’m hanging out a little too much. But he would reach out to me, to the weight room guys, everybody. He was really dialed in.
Mauigoa will move from the right tackle spot he played at Miami to right guard for the Giants. Feliciano beleives the fact that head coach John Harbaugh did not muddy the waters and quickly announced where Mauigo would play will help him adjust.
“It’s huge, man,” Feliciano said. “So you don’t have to worry about anything going forward. For the rest of the summer, OTAs and all that, he’ll be able to just hone in on what he’s going to do, and that’s great.
“Coming from a player that, myself, sometimes, am I going to be playing left guard this season? Am I going to play right guard this season? Am I going to play center? There’s not wasted time, but there’s a lot of time where you’re preparing for multiple things instead of just having all your time, 100%, doing one thing.
“So that’s a benefit there. I think that’s going to help him a lot.”
Feliciano said Mauigoa will have to adjust to “the timing of throwing your hands and just how fast things happen inside,” but believes he will “hit the ground running when the season starts.”
There is, of course, the possibility that at some point in the next few years the Giants will move Mauigoa outside.
Feliciano, though, doesn’t think Mauigoa will give them the chance.
“I don’t think he’s moving again,” Feliciano said. “I think he’s going to be their guard for the next, at least, four years.
“I kind of made a joke to [GM] Joe Schoen when we had a conversation about him, because I know, I saw the writing on the wall. You have AT [Andrew Thomas], you just re-signed [Jermaine] Eluemunor. I was like, Francis is not playing tackle. And he was like, yeah, we’ll start him off inside at guard, and then we’ll see how it goes.
“I was like, Joe, we both know as soon as we move him into guard, you’re going to love the way he looks, and he’s not going to be moved. And Joe just laughed, and he’s like, yeah, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there, if he’s good there, we’re not going to move him. I was like, yeah, so you’re not going to move him.
“I think he’s going to be, eventually, an elite guard. I think he’ll have a really good year this year. But I don’t see him moving again.”
