CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – During the offseason Browns right tackle Jack Conklin spent countless hours at the team facility rehabbing from knee surgery.
He also restructured the final year of his contract and is scheduled to become a free agent next March.
As the 2022 season winds down with the Browns all but out of contention, ‘tis the season to look to the future.
“Cleveland will be my home forever,” Conklin said Tuesday. “So obviously I would like to be here for the rest of my career. We'll see what happens and how that works out. This is the place I definitely wanna be.”
The Browns signed Conklin away from the Tennessee Titans in 2020 in free agency to a three-year, $42 million contract.
Conklin, who was named an All-Pro after his first season in Cleveland, didn’t say if his agent has been working on an extension with the Browns.
“I’m just focused on the season and playing as well as I can to help the team,” Conklin said.
Conklin’s work off the field to return from a torn patellar tendon tear that ended his 2021 season earned him the Ed Block Courage Award, as voted on by his teammates, on Tuesday.
“It means a lot to me to have my teammates see the work I have put in, see how hard it was, and to believe in me and vote me in,” Conklin said. “It means a lot.”
The Ed Block Courage Award is given annually to a member of each of the 32 NFL teams who best exemplifies the qualities of Ed Block – the former head athletic trainer of the Baltimore Colts – based on courage, compassion, commitment and community.
The knee injury happened in Baltimore late last November after Conklin had just returned from missing the previous three games due to a dislocated elbow.
“He is a tough guy,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said. “He gives you everything he has. That award means so much because it is voted on by your teammates and by your peers so the players saw him work like crazy to get back this season. I saw it. He lived here in this building. It is the offseason, it is a weekend and it is odd hours he is in here working trying to get better.
“I just think it speaks to his personality and it speaks to his determination to help this football team and to play through injury. He provides great leadership for this football team. I thought the guys picked a very, very worthy person in Jack Conklin.”
Conklin underwent surgery to repair the patellar tendon in his right knee a few weeks later before undergoing an arduous rehabilitation process.
“It sucked going through it all. It was rough,” Conklin said.
Conklin credited his wife and family with getting through the injury and working his way back in time to start in Week 3 against Pittsburgh, a 29-17 Browns win.
The injury is but a faint memory now.
“It is not something I have really thought about this season,” Conklin said. “It is not something that has hindered me or been a confidence issue for me at all. It has been something I really haven’t thought about much luckily, especially as the season went on. It really hasn’t hindered me at all, and it has been handling playing very well.”
Conklin hasn’t missed a game since his return even though he’s played through a foot injury that had been bothering him for weeks.
“It feels great now,” Conklin said. “It was definitely something that was hanging around for a while, but I just had to dial in. You deal with that stuff throughout the season. Everybody is dealing with something. I don’t think it has hindered me too much, and it is feeling great now.”