49ers make trade with Buccaneers, take defensive lineman Javon Kinlaw with No. 13 pick
The 49ers went back to the defensive line with a first-round draft pick for the fifth time in six years.
After moving down one spot in a trade, getting a coveted midround pick, San Francisco replaced star defensive tackle DeForest Buckner with South Carolina’s Javon Kinlaw.
Kinlaw, 22, is massive, like Buckner, standing 6-5 and 324 pounds. He had 10.5 sacks and 16.0 tackles for loss the past two seasons for the Gamecocks. He has massive 34 7/8-inch arms and 10 1/2-inch hands. Kinlaw was the second defensive tackle off the board after the Carolina Panthers snagged Auburn’s Derrick Brown seventh overall.
Kinlaw is considered a raw prospect, but his production spoke for itself. According to Pro Football Focus, Kinlaw had the best pass rushing win rate of any college defensive tackle the last two seasons at 15.4 percent.
The 49ers moved back one spot in a trade with Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, getting a fourth-round pick, No. 117, while also sending one of their two seventh-round picks to Tampa in the deal. The 49ers entered the draft without a selection in the fourth round because they traded it, along with a third-round choice, to the Denver Broncos in October’s Emmanuel Sanders trade.
In taking Kinlaw, San Francisco passed on receivers CeeDee Lamb and Jerry Jeudy. They also passed on Iowa tackle Tristan Wirfs, who went to the Buccaneers at 13 following the trade.
The 49ers faced a key decision early in the offseason with Buckner needing a new contract and Arik Armstead heading for free agency. The team simply couldn’t afford to keep both on lucrative second contracts.
So Buckner was shipped to Indianapolis for the No. 13 pick and signed a four-year, $84 million extension. San Francisco gave Armstead a five-year, $85 million contract, which includes just a $6 million cap hit in 2020. Buckner will be on the books for over $23 million in 2020.
The cap savings is important for John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan moving forward. The team had roughly $14 million in cap space heading into the draft while needing to sign George Kittle to a contract extension. Kittle’s deal is expected to be the largest for a tight end in NFL history when it’s signed and could average over $13 million per season.
This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 7:05 PM.
