When it comes to interior defensive linemen, Aaron Donald is the gold standard. He owns the single-season sack record for a defensive tackle, has won two Defensive Player of the Year awards in a row and is a five-time All-Pro.
He’s well on his way to Canton after just six NFL seasons – Wade Phillips called him a “surefire Hall of Famer – and he’s only 28 years old. Donald has set the bar extremely high for players at his position, but South Carolina’s Javon Kinlaw is aiming higher.
At the Senior Bowl on Tuesday, Kinlaw was asked if he thinks he can be the type of NFL player Donald is.
“I think I can be better, honestly. That’s just the expectations I have for myself and that’s just how high I aim for myself,” he said, via Luke Easterling of Draft Wire.
That’s a bold statement for a player who hasn’t even been drafted yet, but it’s the sort of confidence Kinlaw has in himself. At South Carolina, Kinlaw had 10 sacks and 17 tackles for loss in three seasons, though he only played seven games as a sophomore in 2017. For comparison, Donald had 29.5 sacks and 66 tackles for loss in his college career (four seasons)
He’s a much bigger defender than Donald was when he came out of Pittsburgh. Kinlaw weighed in at 6-foot-5, 315 pounds at the Senior Bowl, while Donald was only 6-foot-1, 285 pounds at the 2014 combine.
Kinlaw’s potential is great and he looked dominant in practice on Tuesday, but he has a long way to go before he’s discussed in the same conversation as Donald. You have to respect his confidence and aspirations, though.
