New center Connor McGovern sees Super Bowl in Jets' near future

Connor McGovern was at the center of the Jets’ offseason rebuild. Now he sees a Super Bowl title in their future.

McGovern was one of the five offensive linemen whom general manager Joe Douglas signed during free agency. The former Broncos center believes big things are ahead with Sam Darnold at quarterback behind an overhauled line.

“They’re really starting to build something special,” McGovern said on a conference call Friday. “They have the quarterback and running back. They now have the offensive line, and the Jets always have the defense. They’re a team that I thought had the opportunity to win a lot of football games. Now, with the conference being a little shook up from a team standpoint, I think here’s a real opportunity to win a lot of games and . . . get pretty deep in the playoffs and hopefully win the Super Bowl.

“The most important thing and the reason I’m with the Jets is I think they got the coaches and the players to win a Super Bowl.”

The Jets haven’t been to a Super Bowl since 1969 and are nine seasons removed from their last playoff appearance. But McGovern, 26, apparently believes the Jets’ long droughts can end in the near future.

The offense never really got going last year, and the line’s struggles were a big reason. Dual-threat back Le’Veon Bell had his least productive season and Darnold and the other Jets quarterbacks were under pressure often.

Douglas is trying to change that. He signed four linemen to three-year deals, adding McGovern, George Fant, Greg Van Roten and Alex Lewis, and could add a tackle with the No. 11 pick in the NFL Draft. They could have an opportunity to grow together.

“One of the most important things in my mind to be good as an offensive line is cohesion,” McGovern said. “The five of you have to be able to know what each other’s thinking essentially on every play to be effective. That’s going to be the nice thing about this offensive line for years to come. They built it so that the five guys that start are together here for a couple of years.

“That’s the way to build a good team is to have guys on the team for multiple years. Bringing new guys in every year, bringing new coaches every year, switching stuff around every year is not how you win. I’ve been around a lot of that in the past. It’s hard to build that cohesion.”

McGovern, who signed a $27 million deal with $18 million guaranteed, has bounced between guard and center in his NFL career and believes he’s better suited to play center. He started 16 games at center last year, played all 1,014 snaps and didn’t commit a penalty.

McGovern believes Darnold is on the rise and wants to help him get there.

“He’s a great player,” McGovern said. “I think he has an extreme amount of potential. He’s going to keep growing and keep being something special. If I get the opportunity to play center, I’m excited to build a pretty serious relationship with him and be able to help him with anything I can bring on the field with protections and run game and trying to make his job a little bit easier.”