Just a few days into his first training camp as a New York Jet, Tyler Conklin’s head coach Robert Salah called him a “pleasant surprise” when speaking to the media.
The reality is, at this point, it should come as no surprise at all that Conklin is catching people off guard with his talent. After all, his journey to the fifth year of his NFL career has had one common theme - proving people wrong.
“I think you could even say people write me off at times,” Conklin admits.
Once upon a time, Conklin himself wrote himself off as a football prospect. A two-sport athlete in high school in Michigan, he opted to go down the basketball path as he chased his dreams of becoming an athlete.
“We had a good basketball programme, but with football, we weren’t very good in high school,” he recalls. “We didn’t win a game for about three years, so I guess it was kind of hard to like football at that point!”
Just a few games into his Division II career at Northwood, he gave up a full-ride scholarship to head to Central Michigan and walk-on to the football team.
“I decided that I sold myself short,” he explains. His decision meant starting from the bottom, finding a new position and doing anything he could to prove he belonged on the football team. That’s exactly what he did.
“They didn’t guarantee me a spot on the roster, but after going through spring ball I ended up being invited back for camp that next fall and playing receiver,” Conklin recalls.
“I went from playing wide receiver my first four weeks of spring ball to defensive end for about a week, then I asked to move to tight end, because I didn’t really like defensive end to be honest.
“They moved me to tight end and I just slowly worked my way up. I was the seventh tight end out of seven tight ends when I started in that position, but every year I worked my way up the depth chart.”
After climbing from seventh-string to starter by 2016, Conklin was starting to generate some NFL interest when disaster struck just before his final season.
“My junior year was my first year starting, and I had a good year then going into my senior year I was excited to build on that. I was talking to agents, starting to realise that the NFL was close,” he says.
“Then I ended up breaking my foot my first day of camp in my senior year, but I came back from that and had a pretty good senior year from my six or seven games. I ended up being drafted in the fifth round, and it all worked itself out.”
Once again, it took seeing Conklin up close for many NFL scouts to realise his potential. He put in an impressive display at the Senior Bowl, catching a touchdown from now-Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, and was eventually taken 157th overall by the Minnesota Vikings.
When he arrived in Minnesota, he found himself in the familiar scenario of having to prove himself all over again - but now with the knowledge he was more than capable of doing exactly that.
“Being a walk-on taught me a lot,” he reflects. “You don’t get the opportunities. College coaches bring in the people they recruit, so I guess you can say they want the guys they brought in to succeed.
“So when you get an opportunity, you only get a small one, so you’ve got to make the most of it. That’s kind of how my career went in college.
“Then I get to Minnesota, I’m a fifth round draft pick. They’ve got Kyle Rudolph there, a Pro Bowl tight end, then they draft Irv Smith in the second round, I’m kind of in the same situation.
“I’ve got two guys ahead of me, I’m a fifth round draft pick and there’s a little less ahead of me than a second round pick and a Pro Bowler that’s getting paid a lot of money, so I just had to keep working and wait for my time.
“I think being a walk-on really built me for that, because I understood it. I understood you have to be patient and just handle yourself the right way, put in the work and deal with people limiting you and saying, ‘oh he’s only a blocking tight end, he can only do this’ or ‘he can only do that’.
“It just all worked out for me to get that opportunity at the end of my third year, then into the start of my fourth year in Minnesota.”
Conklin’s fourth season with the Vikings proved a breakout campaign as he started 15 games, registered 593 receiving yards and caught four touchdowns.
It prompted the New York Jets to hand him a three-year, $21million contract in free agency as they look to build a new-look offence around young quarterback Zach Wilson.
Whilst fellow tight end CJ Uzomah was an addition which made more headlines, Conklin has quietly gone about his business as he always does and generated plenty of buzz in the pre-season.
Once again, Conklin finds motivation from those who question his ability to replicate his performances from last season and take that next step.
“You get done with that then it’s, ‘oh you just did it one time’, ‘it’s only this’, but that’s just the motivation to prove people wrong, come out here to New York and have an even bigger and better season.
“For me, it’s really working as hard as I can in the off-season to put myself in a position to be impressive in OTAs, be impressive in training camp.
“Then as the season goes on its just preparing each and every week like you’re going to play, and having people in your corner like coaches, family, friends who believe in you and believe when you do get the opportunity, you’re going to make the most of it.
“You really can’t take anything for granted. Every year’s a blessing, making the 53-man roster and getting the opportunity to go out there and take the next step in your career.
“For me it’s just going out there and making the most out of every single snap, every single rep and trying to get to where I want to be in my career. You can’t relax, can’t get complacent and you just have to work as hard as you can to make the most out of every single play.”
Asked if he has any targets for the season on a personal level, he adds: “I think the big thing is just doing what I’ve got to do for this team to win games.
“For me, it’s to go out there and have a better season than last year and become that Pro Bowl calibre tight end I know I can become, that’s the goal for me.”
Conklin has high hopes for himself and also the Jets, a team that has underachieved in recent years but has cautious optimism entering the new campaign.
“Obviously we haven’t won games here in New York for a long time, and that’s something we’ve got to change and we’re going to change, I think we’re confident in that.
“It’s really exciting. When I was in Minnesota, it was just a little older team. Coming here, we’re really young, have a lot of talent.
“There’s a bunch of players that want to go out there and not just prove themselves, but also prove we can go out there and win games to get this organisation back to the play-offs.
“I think we go out there and work like that every day, and whether we’re younger guys or older guys, everyone is extremely confident in each other.”
Whilst confidence might not have exuded from the Jets in recent years, that’s the buzz word Conklin is taking into their season-opener against the Baltimore Ravens this weekend.
“I feel like camp took forever, so I’m excited that the season is getting underway,” he says. “This is the fun stuff now.”
“I think confidence is the right way to go about it. We’re confident in the talent we have in each room, both he offensive and defensive side of the ball.
“We’re confident in our coaches and we’re really confident in the work we’ve put in, all the way back through OTAs. In OTAs and training camp, I think we put together two great phases there as a unit. Now’s the time for us to go out on Sunday and show it to the world.”
