Javon Kinlaw’s NFL tenure has not gone the way that he, and the San Francisco 49ers, had hoped.
The Niners picked Kinlaw No. 14 overall in 2020, despite numerous injury concerns — including that he’s at risk of developing arthritis in both knees. Kinlaw had a bumpy rookie season with occasional flashes of greatness, including a pick-six against the Los Angeles Rams, but he sustained a knee injury in December of 2020 and hasn’t been the same ever since.
Despite numerous offseason procedures and an Instagram declaration to the contrary (“I have no injury,” he said in July), Kinlaw is still definitely injured. And on Friday, head coach Kyle Shanahan announced what seemed inevitable: that Kinlaw recently underwent season-ending knee surgery.
“Kinlaw ended up having his surgery,” Shanahan told reporters. “They went in there, looked at the stuff. He’ll end up going on [injured reserve]. He’ll be out this year… There’s a lot of things that went into it, that they found and things like that, but I think the good news is they feel they solved the problem.”
Shanahan went on to add that he and the 49ers front office genuinely believe Kinlaw will be able to make a full, healthy return next season. That sounds like a fairly optimistic prediction given the way Kinlaw’s pro career has gone so far, but it’s certainly not impossible that he course corrects his career in 2022.
If he struggles again, however, the 49ers will face backlash for taking a player with a pretty clear injury history in the first round of the NFL Draft, as opposed to safer bets like CeeDee Lamb and Justin Jefferson.
