Lance Zierlein grades Jack Conklin as 13th-best 1st-round pick from 2016

Re-grading Jack Conklin, the Tennessee Titans 1st round draft pick in 2016 NFL Draft.

NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein re-graded the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft, how did he feel about the Tennessee Titans selecting Jack Conklin?

I should say this first, it is hard to be impartial when you do these re-grades. Most people still have biases for players that they liked during the pre-draft process whether they acknowledge it or not.

This is what he had to say about Conklin:

"“This is a bit tricky, because Conklin got off to a strong start with an All-Pro season as a rookie, but his play fell off in his second season, and injuries (including an ACL tear suffered in the 2017 postseason) helped derail parts of his 2018 campaign. The Titans declined to pick up his fifth-year option, which is telling, since quality starters at tackle are difficult to find.”"

He gave the selection a “B-” which is fine, but obviously when you look at the first round as a whole it ends up as the 13th.

Now, one thing that isn’t factored in here is the fact that this trade is really Jack Conklin, Corey Davis, Derrick Henry, and others.

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Still, the thing I have a small problem with is some of the names graded out ahead of Jack Conklin on this list. Some of them just don’t sit well with me. Here are some of the names ahead of him:

Jared Goff: I think we all kinda know that Goff is just the guy that Sean McVay currently has at quarterback. I would be really interested to see if he could put up the same sort of season with Blake Bortles.

Sheldon Rankins: I am a Rankins fan, but he has 14 sacks in 41 games and he is probably going to miss some time this season as well coming off of an injury. He has never been a Pro Bowler, much less an All-Pro.

Laremy Tunsil: Tunsil is a great name, but the Miami Dolphins are actively trying to upgrade from him. An “A” grade seems pretty strong…

Some other names are iffy and you have to weigh whether or not a player should get an “A” for missing a whole season while Conklin got marked down because he came back early and tried to help his team but played hurt.

If Conklin took all of 2018 off and only had 2016-2017 on his resume, would we be talking about how he was an “A” grade but the only think keeping him from an “A+” is that unfortunate injury? I think so.

Ultimately, this year has the potential to make Jack Conklin a lot of money. That reminds me, declining the 5th year option has more to do with the cost of that guaranteed year vs the average cost of extending a right tackle.