3 areas where 49ers DT Javon Kinlaw must improve in 2021

No. 2: Javon Kinlaw must play with more body control

Violence at the point of the snap can be a great thing for a defensive lineman, but the best know how to properly hone and distribute hand movement, footwork and rush moves equally well.

For Javon Kinlaw, this is still a work in progress.

Kinlaw’s arm movements — his swim moves, push-offs and power pushes — are certainly there. But at times, much of this is disjointed with his footwork, thereby cutting down on the overall power he’d otherwise be able to deliver when engaging with one or even two blockers at once.

When watching Kinlaw on a down-by-down basis, it can sometimes appear as if he’s almost too violent, taking up too much energy to overwhelm his opponents with an unpredictable array of moves.

It should all start with the footwork, and Kinlaw does have an upper

hand

leg in this regard. The power he’s able to generate from his lower body is without question, only transitioning that effort to well-timed arm movement and counters will eventually turn him into a formidable interior rusher at the point of the attack.

At other times, Kinlaw seemed to get into situations where he shied away from one of his more natural gifts: the bull rush. Perhaps it was the notion he felt sheer brute strength wouldn’t cut it at the NFL level, instead forcing him to rely on finesse a bit more than he was used to, previously.

But that bull rush was deadly at the collegiate level, and he should look to bring a bit more of that back into his skill-set arsenal.