Connor McGovern has big expectations for the Jets, his new team.
The center, who signed a three-year, $27 million contract with the Jets last month, believes he just joined a winner — despite the fact the team has not been to the playoffs in 10 years.
“They’re a team that I thought has an opportunity to win a lot of football games,” he said. “They’re really starting to build something special. I’m here to win championships. All the personal accolades and all that kind of stuff comes with that.
“But definitely the most important thing and the reason I’m with the Jets is I think they’ve got the coaches and the players to win a Super Bowl.”
OK, so the new guy is confident.
McGovern, who turns 27 later this month, is also intelligent. He spent a few minutes on a conference call with reporters last week and it was easy to see how smart he is. The Jets hope he can stabilize a position that has been a revolving door since Nick Mangold was cut following the 2016 season.
The 6-foot-4, 305-pound McGovern is the biggest upgrade the Jets made along their offensive line. There are other new pieces — tackle George Fant and guard Greg Van Roten — in place, but McGovern represents an upgrade over last year’s center combination of Ryan Kalil and Jonotthan Harrison.
The Jets were surprised the Broncos let McGovern hit free agency. Denver opted to sign Graham Glasgow from the Lions instead of bringing back McGovern, the team’s fifth-round draft pick in 2016 out of Missouri.
McGovern played right guard for the Broncos in 2017, then moved to center midway through 2018 and started every game there last season.
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The Jets’ plan is to start the best five players. McGovern should be at center, but if the Jets draft a center, he could move to guard. It is positional flexibility that was one of the factors that made McGovern attractive to the Jets.
“Personally, I think I could be most successful and help the team the best way at center,” McGovern said. “Whatever helps us win the most games. I think my physical attributes fit best with center, but I also think I could be a pretty dang good guard.”
One of the biggest hurdles the Jets face in their offensive-line overhaul is the current situation with the coronavirus. It appears there won’t be any in-person offseason program. That means they will lose valuable OTAs to build chemistry and are likely going to have to work through all of the kinks in training camp.
General manager Joe Douglas brought McGovern in to help protect quarterback Sam Darnold.
“I think he’s going to keep growing into something special,” McGovern said. “I’m excited to build a pretty serious relationship with him and be able to help him with anything I can on the field.”
McGovern grew up in Fargo, N.D., on a potato farm.
“The family business isn’t your typical, you know, what people probably in the city picture as a farm with the red silos and all that kind of stuff,” McGovern said. “But it obviously taught me a lot about hard work and how to handle ups and downs.”
R.D. Offutt Farms is the family business, producing more than 50,000 acres of potatoes every year.
“There are years where potato farming goes pretty smoothly and you don’t have a lot of diseases and the weather cooperates and all that,” McGovern said. “Surprisingly, potatoes are, I would say, pretty ornery vegetables.”
McGovern said potato farming gave him life lessons.
“They’re very susceptible to diseases and there’s a lot of stuff that goes on during farming season that you have to deal with and handle all that kind of adversity,” McGovern said. “So, it helped a lot with, really, the learning aspect of hard work and how to handle adversity.”