Giants' Sisi Mauigoa starting NFL career against some of the best pass rushers in the game
Giants rookie offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa walks off the field at the end of a preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings at MetLife Stadium on Aug.15, 2026. Credit: Getty Images/Mike Coppola
When Sisi Mauigoa started preparing for his first NFL game and realized he’d be lined up against defensive tackle Quinnen Williams as his first foe he turned to his big brother for a scouting report. Kiko Mauigoa is a linebacker for the Jets and had been a teammate of Williams’ there. He’d also given Sisi plenty of other sage advice over the years and Sisi figured he could be counted on to provide some tips or tells on the big fella who is now an anchor for the Cowboys.
Instead he received a rather blunt assessment.
“All he said was that nobody was ever able to beat him at practice,” Sisi Mauigoa told Newsday on Wednesday with a laugh. “I was like, ‘Alright. That’s helpful.’ ”
At this point Mauigoa will take all the help he can get. It’s hard to imagine a more daunting start to his pro career than the lineup of defensive tackles this rookie guard will face in the first few weeks.
First up is Williams, and then in Week 2 Mauigoa could be the guard against whom future Hall of Famer Aaron Donald plays his first snaps after returning to the Rams from retirement.
Think that’s quite the exacta? Right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor, the veteran who has been beside him all summer, was quick to remind that in Week 3 he’ll be up against Jeffrey Simmons of the Titans.
The helpful news keeps coming.
Every young player gets a Welcome to the NFL moment. Mauigoa is going to be getting a Welcome to the NFL Month. In the course of three games Mauigoa will face a combined resume of 18 Pro Bowl appearances, 12 first-or-second-team All-Pro nods, and three Defensive Player of the Year honors.
But he has some news of his own to share, something that backs up all the reasons why the Giants selected him with the 10th overall pick in April’s draft and thrust him into a starting spot right away.
“You know what?” he said. “I’m ready. I’m mentally ready. I’m prepared.”
In a way, he’s been getting ready for this longer than even he knew. When he was a freshman at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in San Bernadino, California he wasn’t an offensive line prodigy, he was a defensive tackle. Donald was the reason why.
“I idolized him,” Mauigoa said. “I used to do his move all the time. I used to study his film and do his cross-chop move.”
Next week he’ll get to face it.
First up, though, is Williams.
“He’s an All-Pro for a reason,” Mauigoa said. “His tape pops out to me. He is very, very strong, a very fast guy. Twitchy. Once he gets his hands on you . . . well, I’ll been working on not letting his hands get on me.”
Some legitimate good news — not the kind of veiled ironic stuff above — is that Mauigoa won’t have to face all of this alone.
“The great offensive lines and the great teammates make sure they pick up the guy next to them, so it’s our job to make sure he goes out there and it isn’t just himself,” Eluemunor said. “We’re not just going to say ‘Sisi, go out there on an island.’ No. Quinnen Williams is a great player and we’re going to have a plan for him.”
And for Donald. And Simmons. And everyone else on the rest of the schedule.
“I’m not worried about that,” Eluemunor said. “He doesn’t act like a rookie. He doesn’t play like a rookie, he doesn’t carry himself like a rookie. He talks like a rookie and he’s immature like a rookie, but when it comes to the partnership with me and him, I think we’ve connected.”
A lot is riding on that being true. We’re about to find out in a hurry if they have.
Mauigoa did get some useful words from Kiko several years ago that he is leaning on this week. It was advice given to him when he showed up at the University of Miami as a freshman starter and Kiko was there as an upperclass linebacker.
“He told me to treat it as just another high school game,” Mauigoa said of his collegiate debut. “So right now I am treating this as just another college game. Yeah, you are going to have the best of the best, you are going to play against the best, but mentally, it’s just another college game. And whatever happens happens.”
Fair. But it’s the whomever it happens against that stands out and will ultimately help write this fraught opening chapter to Mauigoa’s NFL story.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
