When the Commanders handed Javon Kinlaw a three-year, $45 million deal in March 2025, plenty of people around the league treated it like a gamble that had already gone wrong. Washington, though, saw something different in the 6-foot-5, 319-pound defensive tackle.
Kinlaw arrived in Washington after a winding start to his NFL career. The San Francisco 49ers made him a first-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, but after four seasons they declined his fifth-year option.
He then spent a year with the New York Jets, where the results were uneven and never enough to push him into long-term territory. The Commanders still bet on the upside: his age, his flashes as a run defender and the kind of movement few players his size can match.
There was also a familiar face in the building. General manager Adam Peters had been in San Francisco’s front office during all four of Kinlaw’s seasons there.
Last season, Kinlaw played every game for Washington, starting all 17. He finished with 43 tackles, five for loss and no sacks.
There were stretches where he looked overwhelming. There were also too many snaps that fit the larger story of Washington’s defense in 2025 - more misses than hits.
This offseason brought change on that side of the ball. The Commanders hired Daronte Jones as defensive coordinator and added Eric Henderson, one of the league’s top defensive line coaches. Kinlaw says the new setup has him moving all over the front and seeing his game open up.
"God is good, bro. I'm getting to play everywhere," Kinlaw said of Jones' new scheme.
"The shade, the two wide, the three, the four, the five, the six. I'm playing it all, man.
I'm loving it. I'm loving how I'm getting to just give guys different looks and be all over the place, man."
With the front set to look different in 2026 and several new starters expected around him, Kinlaw was asked what his goals look like this season. He kept it simple.
Dominance. Just be dominant.
"My goal is to just take it one day at a time, bro," Kinlaw said. "Sometimes you get caught up in looking forward too fast and peaking too early, but I'm just trying to take it one day at a time, bro.
That's it. I got some goals to just be dominant.
Be as most dominant as I can be, as completely coachable as I can and just lead."
Washington also added Tim Settle this offseason, and the interior group now includes Kinlaw, Daron Payne and Jer'Zhan Newton. Payne is in a contract year, and Kinlaw understands the pressure that comes with needing to deliver in 2026. If he does, it would go a long way toward helping the Commanders reshape a defense that was among the league’s worst.
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