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Iowa football: Desmond King looks to establish himself as NFL’s best CB

By Andrew Wade

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - JANUARY 06: Desmond King #20 of the Los Angeles Chargers returns the ball against the Baltimore Ravens during the first quarter in the AFC Wild Card Playoff game at M&T Bank Stadium on January 06, 2019 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - JANUARY 06: Desmond King #20 of the Los Angeles Chargers returns the ball against the Baltimore Ravens during the first quarter in the AFC Wild Card Playoff game at M&T Bank Stadium on January 06, 2019 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /
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Former Iowa football player Desmond King is coming off an amazing season where he garnered All-Pro honors. Now, it’s time to show the NFL he is for real.

I’m pretty sure if you asked any Iowa football fan if they are surprised by Desmond King’s performance last season for the Los Angeles Chargers, the answer would be a quick and strong “no”.

We saw King dominate the Big Ten and the nation for three years in college. After all, the Michigan native is a two-time All-American, Jim Thorpe Award winner, and the Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year.

Yet, the NFL is pretty rigid (re: old school) in the way they perform evaluations and knocked King because of his perceived lack of athleticism. King subsequently dropped to the 5th round where he was snatched up by the Los Angeles Chargers, and the rest is history.

After being elevated to a major role as the team’s nickel corner due to injury, King put on a solid showing, picking off 1 pass, sacking the quarterback 5 times, and accumulating 71 total tackles.

Last season though, much like the 2015 season, King broke out big time.

One of the best Iowa football players in Hawkeyes history, King showed why he deserved to be selected much higher as he put on an All-Pro performance. He had 3 interceptions, 10 passes defended, 1 forced fumble and 62 tackles. In special teams, he added 522 yards in kick returns and 318 yards and a touchdown in the punt return game.

While the stats were certainly impressive, it was the highlight reel plays that got people talking about Desmond King.

In year three, where does he go from here?

He is firmly entrenched as the team’s starting nickel cornerback in a division that features arguably the leagues best young quarterback in Patrick Mahomes and two quarterbacks who have experienced modest amounts of success at times in Derek Carr and Joe Flacco.

For late round draft picks and undrafted players (Chris Harris Jr for example), it can take years to build respect around the league, but with King’s penchant for making highlight type of plays and his ability to be one of the best corners in the game at arguably the toughest spot, the slot, this should be a much quicker elevation to stardom.

The Chargers defense should be even better this year. Los Angeles drafted Notre Dame’s Jerry Tillery in the first round and the expectation is he will step right into the starting lineup next to dangerous pass rushers Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram. With those two guys forcing quicker and earlier throws, I anticipate King’s ball-hawking and quarterback tempting nature will put him a few more good spots to intercept the ball.

My prediction for this year is a slight regression statistically with King getting 3 interceptions, 1 of which is returned for a TD, and having 80 total tackles. I believe he will also get 2 sacks as the Chargers love to blitz their secondary. On special teams, he will get 1 touchdown on a return.

Next. 30 greatest Iowa football players in Hawk's history. dark

If he puts together a season like that even, we should be seeing King be a two-time All-Pro after just his third season.