NASHVILLE, Tenn. – When the Tennessee Titans decided not to pick up Jack Conklin’s fifth-year option for $12.87 million on May 1, 2019, it was reasonable.
He’d torn his ACL in a 2017 playoff game in New England, started 2018 late, and ended it early with another knee issue. He played out 2019 but not at the same high level they’d seen. The Titans had just signed Taylor Lewan to a five-year, $80 million deal. Two big-money deals for tackles would have been tough, and Conklin went to Cleveland for three years, $42 million.
If they’d have replaced him satisfactorily, no big deal.
Instead, an odyssey at right tackle began.
We know who will play right tackle for the Titans now. They signed Dan Moore to a big free-agent deal to play on the left, and 2024 first-rounder JC Latham will move from the left to the right. If he’s not a fixture there, the Titans have some serious, deep-seeded issues.
Titans right tackle starts since 2020
The initial plan was for 2020 first-rounder Isaiah Wilson, selected 29th overall, to plug in for Conklin. He played four snaps and rates as an all-time draft bust. Jon Robinson and Mike Vrabel pretty casually forgave themselves for that mistake on a guy who changed once he got to the pros, though others said there were warning flags Tennessee missed.
They chased Wilson with 2021 second-rounder Dillon Radunz, who came to be judged a guard.
After spending a first-rounder and a second-rounder on right tackles to replace Conklin, they spent a 2022 third-rounder on Nicholas Petit-Frere. He got progressively worse over his four seasons.
Now, finally, they look to have a guy in line to start the season without carrying a significant question mark.
The final post-Conklin tally: Six years, two first-rounders, a second-rounder, a third-rounder, kind of a sixth-rounder (Duncan may have a future as a backup guard), a seventh-rounder (traded for Watson who was later cut) and too many hits on Titans' quarterbacks to count.
