Monday night's season opener will be the first time new Jets defensive tackle Javon Kinlawwill take a snap since the game-winning overtime touchdown in last season's Super Bowl. It was Kinlaw's last play with the 49ers, the team that drafted him No. 14 overall in 2020.
A lot has changed since.
"I feel free," said Kinlaw, who added 30 pounds of lean muscle this offseason. "The way they coach it over here, it's amazing. You don't really have to worry about too much and it's awesome.
"At first, coming into camp, I was super eager, man. I just couldn't wait. But now it's like a slow flame. I'm right at the end now, but I'm also right at the brink of doing something special for myself and my family."
Kinlaw told reporters in training camp that this is the first year since he was drafted that he's playing like the player he thought he could be. His health caught up to his work ethic, as he put it.
He realized things were different when the Jets held a joint practice with the Panthers in Charlotte, fewer than 200 miles away from where Kinlaw went to high school in Goose Creek, SC. He didn't recognize the player on the tape (in a good way).
"I was just firing on all cylinders," he said. "But the best part about it was I wasn't thinking about anything. I was just going. Whatever I wanted to go with, it worked. I put in a lot of hours on my pass rush side of the game. I've always been a great run defender, but just the pass rush side of things, I tried to put in hours and hours, probably 10 hours worth of reps on my pass rush, and it's been paying off. I still got a lot of things that I haven't even done yet. It's going to be amazing."
HC Robert Saleh said of Kinlaw's performance in the Queen City: "He was unblockable, in my opinion. There are things he's got to work on. He's just so powerful and creating so much knockback that he's actually creating vertical seams in the defense, so we're working on some things to help him transition, not only in the game run, but in the pass."
Kinlaw is coming off a career-high 3.5 sacks and enters a system that's helped defensive tackles flourish. Solomon Thomas, one of Kinlaw's teammates during his time in The Bay, had a career-high 5 sacks last season. Quinton Jefferson, in his eighth year in the NFL, had a career-high 6 sacks last season before he signed with the Browns. Not to mention All-Pro Quinnen Williams had 12 sacks in 2022, which ranked second among defensive tackles in the league.
Kinlaw, who will have about 10 friends and family members in the stands Monday, would be lying if he said it wouldn't be emotional for him when he goes back to the place he's had to overcome injuries to start his career. He played in 10 games between the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
When his first snap as a Jet comes against his old team in a few days, he's looking to prove one person right.
"It's all going to be for myself," he said. "I don't have anything to prove to anybody. I'm just going to be looking to show what I said, that the health is caught up to the work ethic. I've been able to really sharpen my tools this camp more than any camp that I've had.
"It's been awesome for me just knowing these guys actually believe in me. I could feel it. I know I can just go out there and cut it loose and do what I got to do."
