The Browns will finish 2025 without starting right tackle Jack Conklin. The two-time first-team All-Pro is going on injured reserve, the Browns announced.
Conklin hasn’t played since he suffered his second concussion of 2025 in a loss to the 49ers on Nov. 30. The 31-year-old will end up sitting out the Browns’ last five games of the season. KT Leveston is expected to fill in for Conklin for the rest of the year.
Conklin, who has also dealt with eye, elbow, and knee injuries this year, will end 2025 with eight starts in as many appearances. The sixth-year Brown has been a full-time starter over 57 games with the team, but durability has long been an issue. Conklin has missed between five and 16 games in four of his seasons with the Browns, whom the ex-Titan joined on a three-year, $42MM contract in March 2020.
Conklin scored a second lucrative pact with Cleveland – a four-year, $60MM extension – in December 2022. He would have been under club control through 2026, but Conklin agreed to restructure the deal last March. He’ll be a free agent in the offseason as a result.
The Browns are primed for major offseason changes up front with left tackle Cam Robinson (who has filled in for the injured Dawand Jones for most of 2025), guards Wyatt Teller and Joel Bitonio, and center Ethan Pocic also unsigned past this season. Both Conklin and Pocic (Achilles) endured injury-ruined campaigns, which won’t do either any favors on the market.
To take Conklin’s roster spot, the Browns signed safety Chris Edmonds to their active roster. Primarly a special teamer, he’ll make his seventh appearance of the season in a Week 16 meeting with Buffalo. Defensive tackles Keith Cooper Jr. and Maurice Hurst will join Edmonds on Sunday. The Browns elevated Cooper and Hurst from the practice squad.
He’s toast. Time to move on.
He’s the offensive lineman version of JK Dobbins
I would have guessed Conklin to be 5 years older. He’s a testament to how much of a beating one can endure while playing in the trenches.