The Giants are preparing to face Aaron Donald. Their interior line already has a Week 1 grade on record.

John Harbaugh was asked Wednesday what he expects from Aaron Donald if the Rams defensive lineman plays Monday night. "Expect him to play like Aaron Donald, which is a game-wrecking type player inside," Harbaugh said, according to the team's official transcript. "Penetrating, active movement player who can wreck the game, really any particular play in a lot of different ways, run and pass. So, we're expecting him to play. We're planning for him to be out there."

That is the Giants' plan, not a Rams confirmation. Sean McVay said Monday he had not decided whether Donald will play, in remarks posted by ESPN's Sarah Barshop: "He's going to continue to work his process, and we'll see what that looks like." GiantsGator covered McVay's non-answer in detail Monday. Neither team had posted a Week 2 practice report as of Wednesday; the Rams' own injury-report index, checked Wednesday, still listed Week 1 as its newest entry. Donald, who retired in March 2024, returned to the Rams on Aug. 30, according to the team's transactions log, and did not play in the season opener, when the Rams' Week 1 injury report listed him "NIR – Rest" and ruled him out. If he plays Monday, it will be his first regular-season snap since 2023.

Quarterback Jaxson Dart, in the same news conference, called Donald "one of the most dominant players that I've watched" and pointed to "countless clips of putting three offensive linemen on him and still being able to make a play."

If Donald does play, he will mostly be lined up across from the Giants' three interior offensive linemen — left guard Jon Runyan Jr., center John Michael Schmitz and right guard Francis "Sisi" Mauigoa — rather than tackles Andrew Thomas or Jermaine Eluemunor. Donald has spent his career as an interior rusher, not an edge player. That trio already has one game on the books.

Mauigoa, a rookie making his first NFL start, played all 69 offensive snaps against Dallas and allowed no pressure on 34 pass-blocking snaps, per Pro Football Focus — a debut GiantsGator charted in detail. Next Gen Stats, via the Dallas Morning News' Calvin Watkins, had him at 36 pass blocks without one — the most by a rookie in a Week 1 game since 2018.

The run-blocking numbers are closer than a single grade suggests. PFF scored Mauigoa's run blocking 44.5, the lowest of the Giants' five offensive linemen. But in the run-block win rate tracked by ESPN's Jordan Raanan, Mauigoa won 27 of 36 run blocks (75%) — third among the line's five true linemen, one block behind left tackle Andrew Thomas (28 of 36) and ahead of Runyan (26 of 36, 72.2%) and Schmitz (25 of 36, 69.4%). The entire spread across the offensive line, tackles included, is three blocks out of 36 attempts. Three independent film reviews — Giants On SI's Bob Folger, former NFL lineman Geoff Schwartz and ESPN's Peter Schrager — described Mauigoa's run blocking positively rather than as a weak spot.

Runyan is the interior lineman with the more clearly negative Week 1 mark. His overall grade, per Pro Football Focus, was the second-lowest on the Giants' offense: 43.8, with two quarterback hits and a hurry charged against him, as GiantsGator detailed in its full Week 1 grades breakdown.

None of that is a specific projection for how this trio would hold up against a player of Donald's caliber; it's a snapshot from one game against a Dallas front that didn't include one. It does mean whichever guard or the center draws him most often will already have a week of pass-block data behind him. And it means the Giants, at least publicly, aren't waiting on the Rams to make a decision before preparing for the possibility.

The Giants play at the Rams at 8:15 p.m. ET Monday on ESPN and ABC.