NFL Defensive Rookie of Year odds: Niners hoping Javon Kinlaw can replace DeForest Buckner
Javon Kinlaw could help the San Francisco 49ers make defensive history this season.
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The 1980 Atlanta Falcons impressively had two players share NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors, and that's never happening again. What no franchise has ever done is have back-to-back winners of the award. The San Francisco 49ers could be the first in 2020 as former South Carolina defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw is +2500 on the William Hill moneyline odds.
In 2019, the Niners used their first pick in the draft to take Ohio State defensive end Nick Bosa at No. 2 overall and he was Defensive Rookie of the Year – it was well-deserved as Bosa helped transform a good defense into a great one.
Defensive tackle DeForest Buckner was a Pro Bowler and second-team All-Pro last year for San Francisco but traded this offseason to the Indianapolis Colts for the No. 13 overall pick in April's draft because Buckner wanted (and got) a huge extension. The Niners traded that 13th pick to the Tampa Bay Bucs for a few later-round picks to simply move down one spot and take Kinlaw, who was ranked as the No. 10 overall player and the No. 2 defensive end in the Class of 2020 by the CBS Sports Big Board.
The 6-foot-6, 325-pound Kinlaw led South Carolina – where he started three seasons -- in sacks last year with six to go with six tackles for loss and 35 tackles overall in being named a first-team All-American (yet second-team All-SEC). Kinlaw was the first defensive tackle drafted out of South Carolina in a whopping eight years; Travian Robertson went in the seventh round of the 2012 draft.
"The kid that's really exciting a lot of people is [Kinlaw] because he competed in a league that's somewhat amazing," 49ers legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott said last month. "Against some of the teams he played against, people were raving because he was giving some really amazing stuff against Alabama, against LSU. That tells you if he's ready to compete at that level in that environment, he should be ready to compete for the 49ers."
It's a little tougher for a defensive tackle to win this award simply because most defensive tackles don't put up big sack numbers, etc., but are mainly run stoppers in the middle who take on double-teams. The last tackle to win Defensive Rookie of the Year was the Rams' Aaron Donald in 2014, but he's a freak of nature.
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