New Steelers cornerback Desmond King seems very excited to be coming to Pittsburgh, and it’s apparently something he’s been looking forward to for quite some time.
King expressed his excitement at being signed by the Steelers on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, after the news broke that he will be coming to Pittsburgh.
“DREAMS COME TRUE !!,” he wrote. “For some reason it feels like I should’ve been here honestly!! Well here we go.”
Perhaps he should have been. Back in 2017, as part of his pre-draft process, King said that he thought the Steelers were the best fit for him coming out of Iowa.
“I would say the Pittsburgh Steelers,” King said to Big Ten Network, as Steelers Depot wrote in 2017. “The only reason why I would say that is because they are a heavily-based zone team and their defensive scheme is kind of similar to ours here at Iowa. It’s a tough defense, it’s a defensive team and they have guys that are going to go out 110 percent each and every game and play all out.”
King ended up getting drafted by the Los Angeles Chargers in the fifth round of the 2021 NFL Draft. The Steelers drafted Cameron Sutton in the third round, then after King was off the board, took Brian Allen in the fifth.
After four seasons in Los Angeles, part of one in Tennessee and two in Houston, now King is headed to the place that he always thought was a good fit for his game.
He’ll be filling a need for the Steelers, as well, who went through training camp without picking a starter at slot cornerback, and flirted with, but didn’t actually do a lot of, moving veteran Patrick Peterson into the slot. King has experience at both positions, but should shore up the team’s depth chart significantly with his addition.
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