Offensive tackle Jack Conklin will be making his first NFL start at the left tackle position when the Cleveland Browns take on the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday afternoon.
While starting left tackle Jedrick Wills returned to practice on Wednesday, it appears the Browns are going to give him at least a week to ramp up to get ready for live-action football after ending his season in Week 9 with a torn MCL that resulted in knee surgery. Wills told the media on Wednesday that he would not be starting against the Cowboys.
Conklin, too, saw his season end a year ago with a devastating knee injury in the first week of the season. He tore all of his ACL, MCL, and PCL in the Week 1 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, a game that Dawand Jones stepped in for him and never looked back.
Since returning to the practice field over a week ago, Conklin has been cross-training as both a right and left tackle. Here is what Conklin had to say on his cross-training process (via The OBR’s Fred Greetham):
“It just helps the team, and I want to be able to help the team any way I can… It’s a fun thing to have that challenge to learn both.”
https://twitter.com/FredGreetham9/status/1831384675211997382
And with Wills’ declaration, that means it is go-time for Conklin opposite Jones against Micah Parsons, Demarcus Lawrence, and the Dallas defensive front. This, however, is not a position that Conklin is completely new to it even if he has not played left tackle at the NFL level.
Conklin was an All-American left tackle at Michigan State, a status that got him drafted tenth overall by the Tennessee Titans in the 2016 NFL draft to begin with. Speaking on his experience playing left tackle, and what it is going to take to make the switch, Conklin added:
“You know, it’s different but I did it in college. It’s getting into the mentality mostly of just verbiage. Thought of everything one way and just flipping it in your head. So it’s a second more thought when I hear the play to think of the left-hand side instead of the right.”
https://twitter.com/FredGreetham9/status/1831385383910748573
How will Conklin look in his first game back from a severe knee injury almost one year ago to the date? How will he look in his first start at left tackle since 2015?
Much of the Browns’ success in their new-look offense may depend heavily on the answer to these two questions.