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One of the better free agents the Houston Texans signed in 2021 has been cornerback Desmond King.
The former Los Angeles Chargers 2017 fifth-round pick initially played receiver Andre Roberts off the roster midway through the season with his punt return skills. King has averaged 10.5 yards per punt return in nine games.
King also competed for a starting job at cornerback, which resulted in the club releasing Vernon Hargreaves. The 26-year-old had the best game of the season in Week 11 when he got two interceptions, two pass breakups, and eight combined tackles in the 22-13 win over the Tennessee Titans, another one of his former teams.
Defensive coordinator Lovie Smith says King has been able to take in a larger view of the defense, which has resulted in his success.
“Des King has a good big picture outlook on defense,” said Smith. “He knows football, tendencies and all that, but he’s a smart football player. If you go back to his days in college, he had almost 10 interceptions in a season, so he understands that concept a little bit.”
King has also been proficient playing on the inside for the Texans as a slot cornerback.
Said Smith: “One of the harder positions, of course, is to play inside. You have to do an awful lot. But some of the same skills that you look at there in a player, you see on the outside. It’s totally different, but Des is doing an awful lot for our football team.”
The Texans have been experimenting with personnel with their defense since the Week 10 bye. Another move they made was to bring down Lonnie Johnson from the safety position to cornerback. As long as the Texans have King to rely upon, they keep experimenting and finding which players excel at certain positions in the backend.