© Kim Klement | 2018 Nov 10
49ers first-round draft pick Javon Kinlaw’s certainly passes the eye test on tape, but it’s his college stats that don’t have everyone convinced.
Kinlaw had just six sacks his senior season, and only one during the second half of the year. ESPN analyst Mel Kiper cited his statistical slowdown as one of the reasons Auburn’s Derrick Brown was given the edge as the top DL prospect in the draft. So what happened?
Kinlaw’s coach at South Carolina, Will Muschamp, laid it out for Murph and Mac on Tuesday morning. Put simply, Kinlaw started facing double teams, and was moved into more of a defensive tackle role as the season went on.
“Well I think obviously he was very disruptive earlier in the season vs. North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and as the season continued to roll on, people paid a lot more attention to where he was,” Muschamp said. “We continued to try and move him around as much as we could. He’s athletic enough to play the early downs on the edge, but we moved him inside a lot, and he certainly demanded a lot more attention as the season wore on.”
The 49ers will be more than okay if NFL offensive lines take the same approach. The amount of attention DeForest Buckner received was one of the keys to allowing the rest of the San Francisco d-line to pressure the quarterback last season.
Listen to the full interview below.