MOBILE, Ala. — There's probably no such thing as the perfect match. No one prospect — at any position — boasts the ideal blend of physical traits, IQ and character to slide so perfectly into a team’s scheme and locker room that the draft pick is beyond reproach.

If it ever happens, it must be beyond rare.

I had to keep reminding myself of that last week as I listened to and watched South Carolina defensive tackle/wrecking ball Javon Kinlaw turn the Senior Bowl practices into his own personal promotional exhibition.

After spending a few days around him, it became easier and easier to see Kinlaw and the Indianapolis Colts as a perfect match.

The Colts are on the hunt for a game-wrecker along the interior of their defensive front. That’s not me reading tea leaves. That’s general manager Chris Ballard, in a 72-minute news conference, highlighting exactly one position on the Colts young defense as an area that needs improvement: the 3-technique tackle.

“The 3-technique drives this thing, it does,” Ballard said at the beginning of the month. “Every time I’ve been a part of this (defense), the 3-technique drives this. … “We've got to be able to get some more interior pressure.”

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So, knowing that ahead of the Senior Bowl, Kinlaw was already on my radar. He’d enjoyed a breakout season at South Carolina, earning first-team All-American honors as well as first-team All-SEC after registering 35 tackles, six sacks, two passes defended and two fumble recoveries.

But my ears really perked up last week when Senior Bowl Executive Director and former NFL scout Jim Nagy stated in his opening news conference that Kinlaw was “a really, really explosive guy” who not only was “just scratching the surface (of his potential)" but whose “best position is probably the 3-technique defensive tackle.”

OK. Very interesting, but just the tip of the iceberg it turned out. Kinlaw was about to steal the show.

Following Nagy, the media was promised interview sessions with two of the week’s biggest stars. The first to go was Alabama/Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts, who nearly lulled the crowd into a daze with seven minutes of barely audible coach-speak.

Fortunately, it didn't take Kinlaw long to wake everyone up. About a minute into his session, there were suddenly dozens of people on the edges of their seats, captivated by a 6-5, 315-pound behemoth sharing the inspirational tale of his humble beginnings and how he was about to become one of the draft's best rags-to-riches stories in recent memory.

Kinlaw, the son of an immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago, spent his childhood in the suburbs of Washington, D.C, some of it “pretty much homeless, living in basements.”

“We went without electricity, no water, things like that," Kinlaw said of his mother and two brothers. "We had to use the neighbor's hose to fill up totes of water. We would take them back in the house. We had gas, a gas stove. We would light the stove with a little match or something, get a tall pot, boil the water, mix it with some cold water, put it in a bucket, take it upstairs, take a shower like that. At a young age, we just thought that was normal. That's how we was living, we didn't know how everybody else was living, but we knew that's how we was living and we was cool with that, especially me. But now that I look back at it, it was tough, man. It made me a man at a young age.”

A little later, Kinlaw told the story of being so shy at Jones County Junior College — he went there before South Carolina — that he didn’t eat for two days because he couldn’t find the cafeteria. Once he found out the food was free to him, the kid who grew up sustaining himself on hot dogs, bologna and oatmeal “went crazy.”

"I didn't really expect myself to even be here," Kinlaw added. "You just can't give up on yourself."

There are other stories, too. Some he told. Some he didn’t — like how he went from not being able to accept the Gamecocks' scholarship offer out of high school due to poor grades to a proud member of the dean’s list at junior college. Or how that even when Alabama and Southern California came calling after an outstanding season at Jones County Junior College, he was adamant about keeping his commitment to South Carolina.

Not long after Kinlaw’s chat was over — 10 minutes felt like three — fellow IndyStar Colts Insider Joel A. Erickson and I actually bickered over who was going to write his story. He was that compelling.

We could at least agree that if handed the Colts' official draft card right then and there, we each would have scribbled the name "Kinlaw" on it and waited impatiently until April 23 until we could turn it in.

We, however, weren’t the only people in town who felt that way about Kinlaw. He quickly became the talk of the Senior Bowl — and that was before practice had even begun.

One important note about Kinlaw before moving on: He probably shouldn’t have been in Mobile. In fact, some people close to him told him not to go. His draft stock was already plenty high with many forecasting him as a top-15 pick. Playing in the SEC, he faced the best competition college football has to offer. He had little to prove at the Senior Bowl and even less to gain.

And yet, there he was. Why?

“I have everything to prove," Kinlaw said. "I treat myself like I'm that guy still at the bottom. I set my goals so high this season and I feel like I didn't accomplish any of them. That's just how I am. I am looking forward to going out and getting something done. I wanted to have 15 sacks (in 2019) I didn't even get close. ... So I'm here to compete."

He did far more than that. He dominated. For two days, the long-limbed Kinlaw frustrated some of the best offensive line prospects in the country with his scary blend of power and explosiveness. He bull-rushed weaker foes (almost everyone) while also showcasing an array of finesse maneuvers that will make him a handful for any NFL offensive lineman.

His combination of elite size, skill and first-step quickness makes him ideal for the 3-technique but also a candidate to play along most defensive fronts.

It should come as no surprise at this point that after two practices — he didn't participate in the final practice or Saturday's game after dealing with some tendinitis in his knee — most draftniks had projected him to make a leap into the top 10.

Of course, like with just about every prospect, Kinlaw isn't without flaws. He still has room to grow with his technique — especially against the run — and in his ability to identify plays to capitalize on his quickness.

And, obviously, Kinlaw isn't the only defensive tackle prospect in the draft. In fact, he's not even regarded as the best one with Auburn's Derrick Brown consistently projected to be picked ahead of him.

Fellow seniors Marlon Davidson (Auburn) and Neville Gallimore (Oklahoma) also put together solid Senior Bowls, and an impressive crop of underclassmen is slated to join their ranks at the combine next month.

Given the depth at the position and their needs elsewhere, it's possible the Colts might not target a 3-technique lineman in the first round. They could very reasonably wait until later or address the position — as they did recently with Denico Autry — in free agency.

Still, given the performance Kinlaw delivered last week, on and off the field, it's going to be tough for any team to pass on him, especially the Colts.

While there probably isn't such a thing as the perfect fit, Kinlaw and the Colts seems like it could be the rare exception.

Follow IndyStar Colts Insider Jim Ayello on Twitter: @jimayello.