LOS ANGELES — When the whistle blows, the ball is snapped and the quarterback loads up, a radar turns on in the mind of Kam Kinchens.If he’s on the side of the field of a ball’s trajectory, he’s drawn to the pigskin.Take a play from an early training camp practice: Kinchens was caught in the middle of the field as a single-high safety as a pass from Stetson Bennett darted to the sideline, well beyond his range. Kinchens was on a dead sprint to the mesh point, hoping, praying for some help. And then there was cornerback Cam Lampkin, jumping up to contest the pass and tipping it like a volleyball player at the net. Kinchens made the play, diving to secure the ball like a newborn into his stomach.Kinchens, 23, is entering his third season surrounded by an early buzz that could signal an occasional splash becoming a sustainable brand.“Breakout player this year,” defensive back Quentin Lake said.Added strong safety Kam Curl, “He’s an All-Pro player in my eyes. He has what it takes.”Matthew Stafford on how Sean McVay has helped him manipulate NFL defensesRobert MaysKinchens isn’t a fully rounded player yet. Los Angeles bucked the trend when it picked him in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft out of Miami, overlooking an athletic profile that lagged in nearly every measurable. Kinchens stood 5-foot-11, ran a 4.65-second 40-yard dash time and put forth a broad jump of 9-foot-2, all marks in the bottom 38 percent of NFL combine safeties all time, according to Relative Athletic Score.But the Rams selected him anyway because of his ball skills. Kinchens had six interceptions as a sophomore and five more as a junior, with pick sixes in both seasons.He boldly chose to go against the crowd of kids in Miami lining up to be wide receivers when they had sticky hands, opting instead to be a defensive back. Those hands led him to 20 different Power 5 scholarship offers before he chose the hometown Hurricanes, where 13 turnovers in two seasons became his meal ticket and landed him with a Rams franchise looking to rebuild on defense after Aaron Donald’s retirement.“That’s one of his gifts,” Curl said. “The ball finds him.”That gift flashed immediately when he was a rookie, when Kinchens tied for a team-high with four picks despite playing just 46 percent of the team’s defensive snaps. Among those picks was a 103-yard touchdown, the longest interception return of 2024 season, as well as a forced fumble and fumble recovery.“We always talk about calculated risk: If you see it, go get it,” Lake said. “He’s the one who taught me that: ‘Q, just go out there. Sometimes you’re going to have to nut up and believe in it and go get it.’ I did that a couple times, but he’s the one who taught me that, which is a very, very valuable piece of my game that I’m going to take with me for a long time.”Still, Kinchens’ gift for finding the ball also became something of a curse.“You always thought that picks were the best thing. To me, personally, that’s always what it was. I always graded my season on how many picks I got,” Kinchens said.“Last year was the first year I had to switch my mindset to, ‘You can’t get the ball on every down.’ … There’d be games where I had great games but didn’t get my hands on the ball too much, and I’d be down on myself because that’s what I value.”Both of Kam Kinchens’ interceptions last season came in a Week 11 victory over the Seahawks. (Harry How / Getty Images)For a second straight year in 2025, Kinchens turned in a two-interception game against the Seattle Seahawks, this one keying a 21-19 win. The game encapsulated the Rams’ vision for their defense: force quarterbacks like Sam Darnold to choose either taking more hits or rushing throws into coverage. There, Kinchens would be waiting like a snake in the grass.That model had a limit last season, though. The Rams had a potent pass rush, but they lacked a singular game-wrecker up front like Donald. Down the stretch, quarterbacks such as Darnold, Bryce Young and Caleb Williams found ways to extend plays and avoid the rushed throws, only to pick on mismatches against the Rams’ outside cornerbacks.That highlighted Kinchens’ physical limitations, forcing him to react to players who had the ball in their hands rather than when it was in the air. He allowed 24 of 29 passes to be completed for four touchdowns as a result.Kinchens saw his playing time jump to 75 percent of the Rams’ defensive snaps last season and finished fourth on the top-10 scoring defense in tackles with 84. But those two interceptions against the Seahawks were his only ones of the season.The Rams’ 31-27 NFC Championship Game loss to the Seahawks, in which Darnold threw for 346 yards and three touchdowns, became the launching pad for a new defensive structure. The Rams traded for two-time All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie, and then signed his Kansas City Chiefs running mate on the outside, Jaylen Watson. They added some championship pedigree to their younger secondary, as well as physical players who could tackle on both pass and run plays in ways Kinchens and others wouldn’t have to clean up.But the biggest splash came when the Rams sent Jared Verse and a haul of draft picks to the Cleveland Browns for two-time Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett.“Most of the time, you only have a few blockbusters every few years,” Kinchens said as his smile lit up. “We had two in a couple months.”A Rams pass rush that saw Kobie Turner and Byron Young combine for 19 sacks will now add a player in Garrett who can line up everywhere, and who just set the NFL’s single-season sack record with 23.“That’s two less seconds to throw the ball,” Kinchens said of Garrett’s arrival. “We make jokes about the D-line and how we’re just flat-footed at 15 yards and ready to break on something. They don’t have too much time. The quarterback has to make a decision right away.”It’s also possible the Rams may see the return of Donald, their three-time Defensive Player of the Year who is weighing a comeback. If it happens, the Rams could have a third-down pass rush of Garrett, Donald, Turner and Young, with all the stunts, twists and overload pressures that defensive coordinator Chris Shula loves.And when they put six defensive backs on the field in dime settings, hands could be constantly after the ball. That’s when Kinchens turns into a shark smelling blood.“He can be All-Pro. He really can,” Lake said. “We have some good players in the safety room, but I believe truthfully that he can be a 10-pick guy. Seriously. The stuff that I see, and obviously with our pass rush and those things, I would not be surprised if he has at least five this year.”The last time the Rams defense practiced against their offense, Matthew Stafford was rushed into a throw across the middle that was tipped, and Kinchens snatched it out of the air for a pick.Kinchens is the young member of a secondary moving toward its prime. Lake, Curl, McDuffie and Watson signed for a combined $183 million in guarantees over the past calendar year. Lake and Curl, in particular, represent plenty of what Kinchens is trying to become in terms of tackling, diagnosing plays and becoming more versatile. He is the inverse of them, which is what the Rams want.That’s why he kept his offseason simple. He worked out in the weight room and on his cardio nearly every day, but left football training for the season, focusing instead on Pilates and hot yoga as well as new hobbies such as tennis and boxing.He doesn’t enter this season as the star of the defense. He instead wants to be lurking, just like a snake in the grass.“Over the past few years since I’ve been here, outside of Verse, we didn’t have that quote-unquote superstar on the defense. It was just a bunch of guys playing together,” Kinchens said. “To have two of them now? It’s crazy. It’s just going to help me maximize my role. It’s going to make my role a lot easier, of course, having (McDuffie) on the outside and of course Myles rushing the passer along with the rest of the guys.“It brings some more space for me to make some plays.”And that’s always been the space that makes him feel alive.