Rexrode: Titans' pick Jack Conklin more than a 'mauler'

Jack Conklin to Tennessee was no surprise. Jack Conklin to Tennessee at No. 8 was a surprise.

Jack Conklin to Tennessee at No. 8 with Laremy Tunsil still on the board was mind-blowing. It was, like, listening to “Dark Side of the Moon” while watching “The Wizard of Oz” and eating taquitos, man.

That’s a good place to end the Tunsil jokes, a day after his somewhat eventful draft night. It included hacked accounts, a video of him smoking marijuana through a gas mask, his admission that he took money from Ole Miss coaches, and the grave disappointment of having to wait until the 13th pick to become a millionaire in Miami.

This is also a good place to stop speculating about whether Tunsil — projected a few weeks ago to go No. 1 overall to the Titans — would have been the choice over Conklin, minus the “Cheech and Chong” homage. I happen to think not, because Titans brass seems to see in Conklin what was apparent to me in three seasons of covering him at Michigan State.

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MSU tackle Conklin goes from walk-on to 'dominant'

Don’t be surprised if he ends up the Titans’ starting left tackle for many years. Don’t be surprised if he’s a top-shelf player in this league. Be very surprised if he isn’t, at the least, a productive starter at one of those tackle spots.

That’s based on more than interviewing him or watching him blast dudes at Purdue. Intangibles, an obvious draw here for Titans GM Jon Robinson and coach Mike Mularkey, lend much to the expectation that Conklin will be worth the cost to move up again.

“When coach Mularkey and I set out three months ago, we talked about building a tough, team-first, accountable football team, and we were able to add a player last night to this roster that embodies everything that Tennessee Titan football is gonna be about,” Robinson said Friday at the news conference to introduce Conklin. “He is an outstanding football player, but more importantly for us, he is an outstanding young man.”

But talent still rules in this league, and that’s where I think some people have misjudged Conklin. He’s a “mauler,” yes, a physical run blocker who can play right tackle. But his best moments in three seasons as a Michigan State starter at left tackle came in pass protection against guys who now draw hefty NFL paychecks.

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And his worst moments came last season. Here’s a good Conklin story for you. He suffered his first major injury, a left knee sprain, in the fourth week of 2015 against Central Michigan.

He was told he would be out four to six weeks. But the Michigan game was three weeks away and he insisted he would play in it and go for a 3-0 record against the rival Wolverines.

A lot of people around him were telling him he’d be crazy to jeopardize his future. His father, Darren — a high school football coach in their hometown of Plainwell, Mich., and a one-year walk-on for Bo Schembechler at Michigan — called him the week of the Michigan game and gave a final plea of sorts on behalf of those people.

“He fired back immediately, ‘Tell them I play for Michigan State,’ ” Darren Conklin said. “That might be the best moment of his MSU career.”

It did not lead to the best football of his career. If you want to analyze Conklin as a player and you’re looking at anything from that Oct. 17 win over the Wolverines through the next month, don’t. He was not himself. Laterally, not close.

He started to look more like it Nov. 21 at Ohio State, a game the Spartans dominated up front and won despite the injury and absence of quarterback Connor Cook. A year earlier against the Buckeyes, Conklin lined up against Joey Bosa — San Diego’s new No. 3 overall pick — and silenced him. Bosa lined up on the other side in the second half.

Conklin did the same thing in the 2014 season to Nebraska’s Randy Gregory (No. 60 overall pick in 2015) and Baylor’s Shawn Oakman, who will find an NFL team soon. Conklin got the better of Oregon’s DeForest Buckner (No. 7 overall pick Thursday) when they met last season, before the injury.

Titans trade up, pick Michigan State OT Jack Conklin

He’s athletic. Watch him sprint across the field after a Cook pick at Oregon in 2014 and obliterate safety Erick Dargan. He looked like an outside linebacker.

I don’t know if Conklin or incumbent Taylor Lewan — a Michigan product who was the first to greet Conklin on Friday — will end up at left tackle. Conklin was the better college player, but both can do both, and what matters to the Titans is that both are playing well as Big Ten bookends in support of Marcus Mariota.

“I’ll play wherever I’m needed,” Conklin said Friday.

The Titans obviously felt like they needed him somewhere, enough to deal a second- and third-round pick to move up seven spots, enough to ignore Tunsil. Some may find that thinking foggy, but I’ll be surprised if they’re saying that in a few years.

Reach Joe Rexrode at 615-259-8020 and on Twitter @joerexrode.