The Jets have added another tight end. The team is signing Tyler Conklin, reports NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). It’s a three-year deal worth $21MM, according to Aaron Wilson of ProFootballNetwork.com (on Twitter).
[RELATED: Jets To Sign TE C.J. Uzomah]
The former fifth-round pick had spent his entire career with the Vikings, missing only a single regular season game in his four years with the team. Conklin mostly served as a blocker and special team specialist, but he had a breakout offensive season in 2021. The 26-year-old finished the campaign with 61 catches for 593 yards and three touchdowns.
In New York, he’ll be joining a revamepd depth chart that’s led by free agent signing C.J. Uzomah. The Jets are also rostering Ryan Griffin, Trevon Wesco, Kenny Yeboah, and Brandon Dillon, while Tyler Kroft is currently a free agent. Conklin will likely slide in behind Uzomah.
Uzomah’s former team, the Bengals, were among the organizations pursuing Conklin before he landed in New York (per Garafolo on Twitter).
Interesting development.
No wonder Spielman is OUT and looking for a job.
After Irv Smith goes down in 2021, Spielman trades a 2022 4th round pick to the Jets for Chris Herndon. In Smith’s absence, Conklin steps up and gets most of the TE reps. Herndon barely sees the field. Herndon is under contract for only the 2021-2022 season and is a free agent. Conklin signs a free agent contract with the Jets for 2022-2023. AND TE Brandon Dillon, waived by the Vikings on 12/28/21, was picked up by none other than the the New York Jets.
Let’s check the scorecard:
Jets get: 4th round draft choice, TE Tyler Conklin, and TE Brandon Dillon.
Vikings get: One year of TE Chris Herndon warming the bench.
Great strategy and great communication and interaction between the Head Coach and the GM. BOTH ARE NOW OUT OF JOBS.
Don’t be sad, both are being paid by the Vikings to do nothing for the next two years !!
You totally left out the cap ramifications on your scorecard. I get your point, the Herndon trade was bad. But he showed a lot of promise that one year. It was a swing and miss for sure. But it’s not as stupid as your “scorecard” implies, in my opinion. As a Jets fan, I’m not really impressed with either of these TE signings. They seem overpriced to me. Inflation seems to be hitting the TE market
Mr. Bostock,
With the salary cap going back up, i.e., returning to normal, of course inflation is hitting the TE market. $7 million a year is actually at the lower end of the range I was predicting for Conklin after the season. From what I’m hearing from other Jets fans, Uzomah and Conklin will should both get a lot of work next year in the two-TE sets they are expected to run. They are currently ranked 16th and 19th in TE annual average value by OTC, respectively, and the Jets have the 14th highest cap hit for tight ends for the 2022 season at the moment, per spotrac. I think you’re doing just fine.
Replying to Jacksson13,
The Vikings ran the most two-TE sets in the league the last three years running the Kubiak version of the Shanahan system used all over the league, and had made it clear that Smith and Conklin were going to be equally targeted in 2021, just like they were in the last four games of the 2020 season. When Smith went down, they needed to replace him in the line-up.
Herndon was a former 4th round pick who had 71 catches for 796 yards and 7 TD’s in 33 games for the Jets, and the Vikings got him AND a 6th rounder AND almost two-thirds of his 2021 cash for their 4th rounder. It was a perfectly good trade at the time, and the most you can criticize Spielman for is that he didn’t upgrade the TE depth earlier in the off-season, even after supposedly meeting then-UFA MyCole Pruitt. The fact that Herndon couldn’t be better integrated into the Vikings’ offense is mainly on Zimmer and Klint Kubiak, not Spielman.
Conklin is signed through 2024, not 2023.
I still can’t believe the Jets got a 4th rounder for Herdon after his 2020 season. Did someone burn all the videos? Enjoy your 6th rounder.