ESPN broadcaster Booger McFarland is predicting big things for second-year Jets quarterback Sam Darnold.

McFararland said he believes new coach Adam Gase will bring out the best in Darnold.

“I fully expect Sam Darnold not only to flourish this year,” McFarland said recently, “I think he’s going to have one of the better years in the National Football League — even though from a wide receiver standpoint, he doesn’t have some of the weapons that the other guys do. I still think it’s going to be a really, really good year. He has a guy that is going to guide him along, and that really matters at that position.”

That guy is Gase, who was hired in January as the team’s new head coach in large part because ownership believes Gase can help Darnold develop. McFarland, who played nine years in the NFL and now is an analyst on “Monday Night Football,” agrees.

“I think he can do a ton for him,” McFarland said. “If you look around the league now and you look at all the young quarterbacks — you look at [Mitchell] Trubisky in Chicago, he has Matt Nagy; you go out West, you look at Jared Goff, he has Sean McVay. If you find a young quarterback, usually that young quarterback has an offensive head coach or play-caller, somebody that is simpatico with him where they are talking the same, they are breathing the same, they are looking at football the same way. Therefore, you’re seeing those young guys flourish.”

The Jets drafted Trenton Cannon last year hoping he could be their kick returner. He struggled in the preseason with catching the ball, and the Jets put Andre Roberts in that role. Cannon ended up returning just one kick last season.

This year, Roberts is in Buffalo, and the Jets are turning to Cannon to be their kickoff returner.

“I’m excited to see him,” special teams coach Brant Boyer said. “We’ve got some new guys around blocking for him, but I think it’ll be interesting to see how he handles it. That’s what he’s here for and I think he’s expanded from not only to be a gunner and doing a really good job in other phases. I think he’s just growing and growing as a player. He’s growing as a returner. I think the more he plays, the better he gets in every phase. And I think that it’s going to do nothing but get better for him the more he plays.”