Uniform Number for New Steelers CB Desmond King Revealed
New Steelers cornerback Desmond King has revealed his uniform number. The Iowa product will don No. 25 with Pittsburgh, the same number he wore with the Houston Texans. King took to X, the app https://twitter.com/blaqbadger14/status/1697297956175482947?s=20″>formerly
known as Twitter, to announce that he would continue wearing No. 25.
BACK AT IT 25 🖤💛 #HereWeGo pic.twitter.com/MZsRrz87td
— Desmond E. King II (@blaqbadger14) August 31, 2023
The most recent players to wear No. 25 were Isaiah Dunn and Lavert Hill during training camp. However, Ahkello Witherspoon was the last player to wear it during a regular season game. The Steelers moved on from Witherspoon this spring after a hamstring injury knocked Witherspoon out for most of the season.
In the past, guys such as Artie Burns, Brandon Boykin, and Brice McCain wore the number for Pittsburgh. Of course, the most well-known No. 25 for Pittsburgh is Ryan Clark. Other notables to have worn that number include Ron Shanklin and Gary Jones.
Desmond King will join Pittsburgh as a key secondary member with inside-out versatility. Now, the team is carrying seven cornerbacks, which I can not recall happening in recent memory, but it is hard to see who they would on from just out of the gate. King looks to come in and make plays immediately on run downs and as a blitzer, one of his best traits. He always thought he could land with the Steelers in the pre-draft process and wanted to be a Steeler.
“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.”
Now, King looks to prove himself as a critical member of the secondary. The Steelers looked for cornerback depth, and King checked the boxes from a pre-draft evaluation standpoint and as a productive pro over his career since entering the league in 2017.