Connor McGovern’s name suddenly surfaced as a possible trade candidate as the Cowboys closed out the week of practice in Frisco. ESPN’s Todd Archer tweeted Friday afternoon that unnamed clubs were interested in acquiring the offensive guard entering his third season in Dallas.
Archer went on to note that the Cowboys “would be reluctant” to actually deal McGovern, as the team sees him as a starting-caliber lineman in a unit where depth was relied upon heavily last year.
McGovern, a third-round draft pick out of Penn State in 2019, missed his rookie season with a torn pectoral muscle. Last season, he started the year as a backup, logging only minimal snaps- mostly on special teams- until Week 5. In Week 6 versus Arizona, McGovern came on in relief of Zack Martin and then made his first start in Martin’s usual spot the following week. McGovern went on to record eight starts in 2020 (including seven in a row to close out the season), and was on the field for better than 90% of the offense’s snaps in nine out of 16 games.
With the team’s offensive line back to full health for 2021, McGovern likely goes back to a bench role. But he is a key cog in any Plan B along the front five. If Martin goes down at right guard, McGovern goes in. If left guard Connor Williams goes down, McGovern goes in. If center Tyler Biadasz goes down, Williams could move over to snap and McGovern goes in for Williams. If right tackle La’el Collins goes down, Martin potentially slides over for him and McGovern goes in for Martin.
Connor McGovern is the proverbial “next man up” in nearly any injury scenario along the the offensive line.
“Connor McGovern is just continuing to build off of last year,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy raved on Friday. “He had a tremendous finish as far as his growth as a player throughout last year. He had a strong finish at the end of the year, and he’s continued that.”
Given the team’s patchwork approach to the O-line last season and a fair bit of breath-holding regarding the continued health of several veteran linemen this year, one would imagine that the Cowboys would demand a more than pretty penny to let the 23-year-old leave.
Speaking on Dallas radio, Cowboys chief operating officer Stephen Jones downplayed any trade talk and even implied that McGovern is still in the mix for a starting role.
“You’ve got to have seven or eight of these guys to make it through a season,” Jones explained. “So I find it really hard to see us doing anything that would hurt us in that area right there.”
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