Kinlaw finished the 2023 regular season with 25 tackles (13 solo), 3.5 sacks and three passes defensed across 17 games. He added nine stops (seven solo) over the 49ers' three playoff games.
Kinlaw's fourth season with San Francisco came to a tepid end, despite appearing in every game for the first time in his career. The 2020 first-round selection operated primarily as a backup to Javon Hargrave, who was signed last offseason to handle the role Kinlaw was supposed to fill when he was drafted. The 49ers already declined Kinlaw's fifth-year option for 2024, making the interior lineman an unrestricted free agent at the start of the new league year.