Titans make a trade for Desmond King.
The NFL trade deadline is on Tuesday, and the Tennessee Titans just made a big trade to acquire Demond King from the L.A. Chargers
The Tennessee Titans “defense” has been atrocious so far this year, especially in the secondary. The Titans have needed help in their secondary and today they get Desmond King.
In case you weren’t familiar with Desmond King, he is a 25-year-old slot cornerback who can play almost any spot in the defensive backfield and has played his whole career with the Los Angeles Chargers.
In 2018, Desmond King was a 1st team All-Pro cornerback in just his second year in the NFL.
He started eight games in 2018 and played all 16 where King had three interceptions (one returned for a touchdown) and one forced fumble with two recoveries. King also finished among the top secondary players in tackles for 2018 with 62 total, and four for a loss.
2019 was not Desmond King’s best season, but that doesn’t mean that he was bad. He didn’t have any interceptions, although he has never been the ball hawk type of player.
He started eight of 15 games, and forced one fumble, while also recovering two. King was not near the top in tackles last season, but he did finish with 51 tackles and two and a half sacks.
So far this season, Desmond King is having a sub-par year, but a lot of that is due to him seeing less playing time for…reasons?
Even the year he is having is better than the season some of the Titans secondary is putting together. Desmond King so far is at 24 total tackles, with no interceptions or fumbles, but he has had a sack.
Looking beyond the box score, Desmond King has started three of the six games the Chargers have played this season, but he has only played around half of the defensive snaps this season for L.A.
Another quirky stat, Desmond King has allowed 0.3 yards per coverage snap, which is the lowest of any cornerback playing in the slot this season.
Desmond King has allowed just 0.3 yards per coverage snap this season, almost half the amount of any other slot CB this season (min. 60 coverage snaps).#Titans https://t.co/zbESbmZYCw
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) November 2, 2020
Despite the struggles Desmond King has had this year, the Titans will get more out of him than the secondary players they have now.
Just from the eye test, King has played much better than Johnathan Joseph this year, which is who he may be replaced in the starting lineup. The Tennessee Titans only traded a sixth-round pick for him, so even if this experiment doe not work out it wasn’t very risky.