Tennessee Titans free agency magic: re-signing Derrick Henry, Ryan Tannehill and Jack Conklin
By Will Lomas
Potential deal: 5 year, $65 million
Structure: 2020: $12 million, 2021: $13 million, 2022: $13 million, 2023: $13 million, 2024: $14 million
The Tennessee Titans hedged their bets with Jack Conklin knowing that they couldn’t be on the hook for a huge guaranteed contract in 2020 based on his performance in 2018. Luckily for everyone, Conklin turned out to have a 2019 season that was exactly like his 2017 and 2018 seasons when people mentioned him as one of the best young tackles in the NFL.
Well, when the Titans decided to wait and see they did so knowing that this was a possibility. Still, you just can’t let a tackle as good as Conklin hit the open market.
If you go on Twitter I am sure that someone has posted good and bad clips of him because you could do that with every single tackle in the NFL no matter how good your PR team is.
When you look at Conklin’s career and his trajectory going forward, it is easy to see him as a tackle who reclaims the respect he lost after the ACL injury in the playoffs hampered his 2018 season.
Conklin will turn 26 right after the 2020 season starts and the peak for offensive tackles in the NFL seems to be sometime between 25 to 31, unlike running backs who shine brighter but who burn out quickly.
This deal would make Conklin the highest paid right tackle in the NFL not including Trent Brown who is a left tackle by trade who played right tackle for the Raiders this year, and Lane Johnson who may or may not be the Eagles future left tackle whenever that job opens up.
Re-signing a 26 year old, Pro Bowl/All Pro level offensive tackle is great business and historically it does more for a team than going out and signing a big name WR or DB. There shouldn’t be any push back on this from people who have watched his play during his career with the Titans.