Pierre Desir fell upwards. After being released by the lowly Jets earlier this month, the cornerback has agreed to sign with the Ravens (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo). The deal will become official once Desir clears COVID-19 testing. 
The Jets signed Desir to a one-year deal worth $4MM, plus incentives. He was on the field for nearly every down, but, like the rest of the Jets’ D, he wasn’t terribly effective. To date, he’s registered 47 tackles, eight passes defended, and three interceptions, but he often struggled in coverage.
On the flipside, the Jets’ front seven wasn’t putting much pressure on opposing quarterbacks. It’s also worth noting that Desir was the NFL’s second-best cornerback in 2019, per Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics. He’ll now join a secondary that has been mostly solid throughout the year, despite some hiccups against the Titans. Cornerback Marlon Humphrey and safety Chuck Clark struggled on Sunday, but they figure to be much more reliable going forward.
The Ravens will have Desir on Thursday night against the Steelers, but they won’t have running backs Mark Ingram and J.K. Dobbins available. Both players have been ruled out after testing positive for COVID-19.
Well, this should certainly tell us if Desir was at fault for his poor reputation this year or the Jets were. I would lean towards the latter, if for no other reason than that there is not a single other player that we can name as successful this year for the Jets.
I thought that the Colts played more zone and 4-3 base in Desir’s breakout year. The Ravens would prefer to man up in the secondary, as did the Jets. Maybe someone can correct me here, but if that’s true, it would mean that Desir himself prefers zone coverage. Hopefully he can excel regardless and the Jets were the issue instead. Always liked him as an athletic small school guy, so I consider myself slightly biased. I do think that’s an NFL level corner, and despite any struggles, three picks is still three picks. He can contribute.