In watching tape of him, the part of his game I like best is his recovery . You can see where he sometimes makes mistakes or overextends and gets caught out of position or off balance, but his recovery is so good that he quickly regains control of the situation and his opponent. And when that happens, whoever that poor soul is isn't about to make a play. The guy is tough and physical and has no problem mixing it up in the trenches and the more I watch him, the more I like him.
With some quality NFL coaching, his minor technique issues should get cleaned up quickly, and then look out. He's going to be tough for people to handle. He's going to be a heckuva bookend for Zack Martin inside, as long as there are no struggles with flipping his footwork, but based on his experience at center, I don't anticipate too much trouble.
Connor Recoverin' is my name for him.
Yep. He also plays around 320.
Additionally, although I do think this gets overblown but in the case of a guy like McGovern it's interesting, is that he has longer arms than anyone on the OL not named Tyron. Which is a small factor, but in the case of a guy who has great lower body strength/explosion and balance, I bet it does help in exactly what you're talking about, recovery. It'll also help a bit when he gets his technique cleaned up like you said.
The battle of the Connors is going to be great. Connor William's is a competitive dude, young, a great athlete too, and played pretty nasty at UT. William's will get snaps at RT, which he's probably more suited, and definitely will be in the future, but he's going to battle and be improved at LG. McGovern is pretty much exactly what you draw up for a G nowadays with all these incredibly strong and fast interior DL that are 1-gapping off the snap. I can't remember seeing him pull in college (he obviously did, I just haven't gone back and broken it down), but with his explosion, balance, and arm length, I can imagine in a few years LBs are going to have a lot of trouble trying to disengage, or not getting destroyed, when he's aiming to erase them.
Can't wait to see him get snaps. He has the potential to be great value, and I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up one of the best Guards in this class, especially sandwiched between Tyron and Frederick.
