By Sarah Barber
Medill Reports
NEW ORLEANS — When Darian Kinnard signed with the Philadelphia Eagles as a free agent Feb. 20, 2024, he “had a feeling” he’d be seeing his former team Kansas City at Caesars Superdome for Super Bowl LIX.
“As the year progressed, it started to really, really come alive,” Kinnard said in the week leading up to the Super Bowl. “I’ve been in the program for two years there, and then I came out here and saw how this program operated, I saw the guys in the building. I just had a good feeling.”
Kinnard was drafted in 2022 by the Chiefs, with the 145th pick in the fifth round. He was on the Kansas City roster when they beat the Eagles, 38-35, in Super Bowl LVII and was a practice squad member the following season when the Chiefs won back-to-back.
It’s only his third year in the league, and every year his team has made it to the big game, but it’s not something Kinnard spends much time focusing on.
Between last season on the Kansas City practice squad and not getting playing time with the Eagles this season, he’s found other ways to contribute to his teams’ successes.
“I’ve been so focused on just trying to make it in this league and be a part of something, so I haven’t really sat back and really looked at (my career),” Kinnard explained. “It’s really just about what I can do for the team I’m on and being a part of something special. I’m always moment to moment, day to day, practice to practice. I’ve been really focused on trying to do that and be valuable to the team, focusing more on what’s right in front of me rather than looking back.”
Kinnard’s work ethic is something his teammates can’t help but notice. Offensive tackle Fred Johnson has six years of experience in the league, including a Super Bowl LVI appearance with Cincinnati, and has been with the Eagles since 2022.
“It’s his first year here, he’s constantly trying to get better, constantly trying to work,” Johnson said. “You can see it in camp, even as the season went on, he’s just gotten better every week, trying to be the best he can be for the team. He’s not playing at all. He just comes to work and shows up, tries to do his best.”
Kinnard’s team-first mentality was something former head coach Chuck Kyle, who led St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland to 11 state and three national titles, tried to instill in Kinnard during his time on the Wildcat football team.
According to Kyle, Kinnard came into the St. Ignatius program with little background in the sport because there wasn’t good youth football development in his area. That meant Kinnard had to be patient and work to catch up to the guys on the team who already had a few years of instruction under their belts.
“We had a lot of guys on the team, but when the whistle blows, only 11 guys run out there,” Kyle said in a phone interview “But how effective are your practices? Especially in high school, those second- and third-team guys, if they give a quality practice to the first team guys, that’s only going to help you. Obviously, with (Kinnard’s) God-given talent, his size and everything, he moved up to the starting lineup pretty quickly.”
Part of what helped Kinnard bridge the gap between his skills and his teammates’ was taking up shot put and discus for the St. Ignatius track and field team.
“He saw the athletic promise and training that shot put has for explosion and footwork and so on, that could just blend right into football,” Kyle said.
Kinnard placed 2nd in shot put and 13th in discus at the 2017 Ohio High School Athletic Association Championship Meet his senior year.
Kinnard’s dedication to growing his game began in high school, but it hasn’t wavered. After spending time on the Chiefs’ practice squad, he decided to take a risk and enter free agency.
“The Eagles said they really wanted me,” Kinnard recalled. “So I was like, ‘I’m gonna take a chance.’ I’ll move across the country, I’m gonna prove what I can do and show everybody that I’m capable of being a starter somewhere else. So I did that, and they liked what they saw.”
He started in the league as a guard but moved to tackle, the position he played for the University of Kentucky, once in Philadelphia. Though he initially wanted to remain a guard, he welcomed the positional change as another growth opportunity.
“They put me on tackle, wanted to see what I did on tackle, and they really liked me out there. They decided to move me somewhere else, but it had nothing to do with me, it had to do with the business aspect of it,” Kinnard said. “At that point, I was like, ‘All right, well, I’m gonna prove I can play in multiple positions and on a high level, not just being average at one or the other.’”
As Kinnard prepares for Sunday’s big game, he’s making a point to continue his level-headed, team-first mentality.
“I’ve just been focused on seeing what I can do to help the team and hopefully bring home a ring (to Philadelphia),” Kinnard said. “Emotions aren’t really too involved. It’s really just about what I can do for the team.”
Sarah Barber is a sports media graduate student at Medill. You can follow her on Twitter/X @sarahbarber49.
