LA Chargers: Why Desmond King should and shouldn’t be traded

The LA Chargers should trade King to move up in the draft.

The Detroit Lions have let teams know that they might be open for business when the draft opens on April 23rd:

One team to watch during the NFL Draft is the #Lions: At No. 3, I’m told they’ve had discussions with teams about potentially moving back from their slot and that teams wanting to move up have been receptive. As it maps out possibilities, Detroit is always an intriguing team.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 9, 2020

The teams that often are mentioned with trading up into the top five are the Chargers and Dolphins. It will be difficult to make an offer that matches what Miami can trade up with strictly on draft capital. However, the Chargers also have more pieces that are tradeable. King is still on his rookie contract is on an expiring deal. That could be appealing for a team like the Lions if they’re looking to bolster cornerback depth.

Desmond Trufant was a decent pickup, but he isn’t necessarily the answer at cornerback in Detroit. That would likely be Jeffrey Okudah at the top of the draft. If the Chargers want to trade up to get Tua Tagovailoa or another star player like Isaiah Simmons, Detroit could probably still get Okudah by trading back to six, on top of King and some draft picks.

Even though he’s coming off of a year where he regressed, King’s cheap contract and production before 2019 might offset hesitance from other teams in a trade.

There are no real reports on what teams are interested in King yet as we’re in the early stages, but both Detroit and New York are looking to bolster their secondaries. If the Chargers want to jump Miami in the first round, King could be a valuable piece that makes up some of the disparity in draft capital between the teams.