The Houston Texans may have repeated as a four-win ball club in 2021, but cornerback Desmond King doesn’t believe the team was that horrendous.
The 27-year-old played in 16 games, starting in 12 of them, and provided the Texans with 93 combined tackles, a tackle for loss, three interceptions, six pass breakups, and a forced fumble.
King signed another short-term deal to return to the Texans. The former 2018 Pro Bowler won’t have to find another team as he did after the 2020 season when he played for both the Los Angeles Chargers and Tennessee Titans before signing with Houston in the 2021 offseason.
The confidence that King has in the Texans under coach Lovie Smith is one of the reasons he chose to come back to Houston.
“Just having that confidence and that trust in the team, I believe that we definitely had a good team last year,” said King. “It didn’t show by the record, but me being on the field, I could feel that playing with those guys that they were willing to fight, willing to play hard, willing to go out there and win each and every week.”
The Texans did adhere to one of Smith’s commandments: generate takeaways. Houston procured 25 of them, tied for the 10th-most in the NFL. The Texans were the only team with a losing record to crack the top-10.
“Then seeing Coach Lovie become the head coach, it showed the bright spot of our team that he was our D-coordinator, knowing that he’s going to try and revamp this team and kind of lead it in the right way and take us somewhere we need to be,” King explained.
Staying in Houston also allowed King the chance to continue building upon what he had started in 2021, rather than having to lay a new foundation in another NFL city.
Said King: “It’s also a blessing to be back here with the team again, not having to go through that process again. I’m finally somewhere settled down, familiar with the organization, familiar with the playbook, familiar with the team, coaches and everybody in the building. All around it just felt great today being out there.”
King could find himself a new teammate in the secondary after the 2022 NFL draft, as the Texans seek to add talent in the defensive backfield.
