Jonathan Jackson Conklin (born August 17, 1994) is an American professional football offensive tackle. He played college football for the Michigan State Spartans and was selected by the Tennessee Titans eighth overall in the 2016 NFL draft. Conklin has been named a first-team All-Pro twice.
Conklin was born in Plainwell, Michigan on August 17, 1994, to Darren Conklin and Jennifer Jackson. He attended Plainwell High School in Plainwell, where he played football under his father who was the head coach. Conklin also played basketball in high school.
Conklin joined the Michigan State University football team as a walk-on player.
After redshirting his first year, Conklin started 13 of 14 games at either right or left offensive tackle his redshirt freshman year in 2013.
As a sophomore, Conklin started all 13 games at left tackle.
Conklin was selected as a 2015 First-team All-American (Sporting News, USA Today) as well as the 2015 First-team All-Big Ten Conference (coaches, media).
During his career with the Spartans, Conklin started in 38 of his 39 career games (35 at left tackle and three at right tackle). On January 6, 2016, Conklin announced that he would forgo his senior season and declare for the 2016 NFL draft.
Conklin was projected to be a top-10 pick going into the 2016 NFL draft by NFL draft experts and scouts after he had a successful junior year where he only gave up two sacks and was penalized twice. Conklin attended private workout of pre-draft visits with multiple teams, including the Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers, Pittsburgh Steelers, Tennessee Titans, New York Jets, Indianapolis Colts, Atlanta Falcons, Detroit Lions, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers during his pre-draft process.
At the conclusion of the pre-draft process, Conklin was projected to be a first round pick and was expected to among the first 15 players selected by NFL draft experts and scouts. He was ranked as the third best offensive tackle prospect in the draft by DraftScout.com, NFL analyst Mike Mayock, and ESPN analyst Jeff Legwold. Conklin was ranked the fourth best offensive tackle by Sports Illustrated.
The Titans selected Conklin in the first round (eighth overall) of the 2016 NFL draft. They traded their first (15th overall) and third round (76th overall) picks to the Cleveland Browns in order to receive the eighth overall pick, as well as a sixth round pick (176th overall), to draft Conklin. Conklin was the second offensive tackle drafted after the unexpected draft fall of top-ranked offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil.
On May 26, 2016, Conklin signed a four-year, $15.89 million rookie contract with $15.44 million guaranteed and a signing bonus of $9.76 million.
Conklin entered training camp slated as the starting right tackle, replacing Byron Bell. Head coach Mike Mularkey named Conklin the starting right tackle to begin the regular season. Conklin joined starting left tackle Taylor Lewan, offensive guards Quinton Spain and Chance Warmack, and center Ben Jones.
Conklin made his professional regular season debut and first NFL start in the Titans' season-opening 25–16 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. On December 21, 2016, it was announced that Conklin was selected as an alternate for the 2017 Pro Bowl. He started in all 16 games during his rookie season in 2016 and was named First-team All-Pro. Conklin was also named to the PFWA All-Rookie Team. He received an overall grade of 88.9 from Pro Football Focus (PFF), which was the fifth highest among all offensive linemen in 2016 and was the highest overall grade among all rookie offensive linemen. The Titans' offensive line was ranked as the top offensive line in the league in 2016 by PFF. The Titans finished 9–7 from a 3–13 record the previous season and narrowly missed the playoffs.
Mularkey retained Conklin and Taylor Lewan as the starting offensive tackles in 2017. Conklin started all 16 games at right tackle in 2017 and received an overall grade of 81.8 from PFF. His grade ranked 12th among all offensive tackles in 2017.
The Titans finished second in the AFC South with a 9–7 record in 2017 and earned a playoff berth for the first time since 2008. On January 6, 2018, Conklin started in his first career playoff game as the Titans narrowly defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 22–21 in the AFC Wildcard Game. The following week, Conklin tore his ACL during a 35–14 road loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC Divisional Round.
On January 15, 2018, the Titans announced their decision to fire Mularkey. Five days later, the Titans announced their decision to hire Houston Texans defensive coordinator Mike Vrabel as their new head coach. On January 26, it was reported that Conklin's surgery to repair his torn ACL had successfully been completed. New offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur retained the starting offensive line, that also included starting left tackle Taylor Lewan, offensive guards Quinton Spain and Josh Kline, and center Ben Jones.
Conklin missed the first three games of the season in order to recover from his ACL injury. Conklin suffered an injury during a Week 9 28–14 road victory over the Dallas Cowboys. He soon entered concussion protocol. Conklin would not play the next week against the Patriots. However, he did return for the Week 11 game against the Colts. Conklin then suffered a knee injury three weeks later against the Jacksonville Jaguars and was placed on injured reserve on December 11. The Titans finished 9–7 for the third consecutive year.
On May 1, 2019, the Titans declined the fifth-year option on Conklin's contract, making him a free agent in 2020.