Tyler Conklin was one of the steadiest tight ends in the NFL for most of this decade, catching 50-plus passes for four straight seasons with the Minnesota Vikings and New York Jets from 2021-24.
Conklin’s production dropped dramatically last fall in a seven-catch season with the Los Angeles Chargers, but the Michigan native is confident he still has plenty of good football left in him as the new No. 3 tight end for his hometown team.
“I think I can definitely be very productive in the pass game still,” Conklin said Tuesday, March 17, after officially signing his one-year free-agent deal with the Detroit Lions. “I think just ’cause one situation didn’t quite work out the way anybody wanted it doesn’t mean you just, like, can’t do it anymore.”
A L’Anse Creuse North and Central Michigan product who played as a backup his first three seasons in the NFL, Conklin averaged 58 catches and 554 yards during his final season with the Vikings and three more seasons with the Jets before signing a one-year deal with the Chargers last spring.
He said his statistical dip last year – he caught just seven passes on 10 targets for 101 yards despite appearing in 13 games – was due in part to the Chargers’ philosophy of using their tight ends in very specific roles.
Oronde Gadsden had 664 yards receiving as the Chargers’ primary pass-catching tight end. Defensive lineman Scott Matlock doubled as a fullback in obvious blocking situations. And Will Dissly opened the season in a supporting role before missing eight games with injury.
“I’ve always prided myself on trying to be … an every-down tight end, whether it’s pass game, run game, pass protection,” Conklin said. “I think there they specialized and kind of had guys that really excelled in one area. So I think just that in general kind of just maybe hurt my play style. I’m not a 280-pound mauler, but I can get the job done in the run game. And I’m not like a super-flashy pass catcher, but I could be very productive in the pass game.”
In Detroit, Conklin will be asked to do a little bit of everything as the third tight end in a room that returns Sam LaPorta and Brock Wright coming off season-ending injuries.
And while it’s unlikely he’ll catch 50 passes this fall given the Lions’ other weapons on offense, he could see a tick up in playing time under new Lions offensive coordinator Drew Petzing, who ran more three-tight end sets than any play-caller in the NFL during his time with the Arizona Cardinals in 2023-25.
“Whether I’m catching passes, whether I’m blocking more, whether I’m playing special teams, whether I’m just mentoring, whatever that role is, I want to help this team in,” Conklin said. “But I definitely got a lot of good football left in me.”
Conklin, who walked on to the football team at Central Michigan after giving up a basketball scholarship at Northwood in order to pursue his dream of being a Division I athlete, said he’s “very motivated” to prove that this fall and that playing for the Lions “even adds on to” his inspiration.
Though he did not grow up a Lions fan in northern Macomb County – his father was a Chicago Bears fan, and he said he rooted for the Green Bay Packers “to make him mad” – Conklin has always kept a home in Michigan and calls the state “my favorite place in the world.”
“Just watching the state of Michigan just rally behind the football programs here and seeing what it does for a community … I couldn’t help but just want [the Lions and] every Detroit sports team to do good,” he said. “So to come back here and have the opportunity to be a part of it and be a part of something special is, I didn’t realize how special it would feel.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tyler Conklin, new Lions TE, has ‘a lot of good football left in me’
Reporting by Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
