Cardinals rookie Budda Baker impresses in preseason debut
The sooner Budda Baker shows he can contribute to Arizona's defense, the better the Cardinals will be.
Cardinals safety Budda Baker covers Jaron Brown during a training camp practice Aug. 1. (Photo by Adam Green/Arizona Sports)
(Photo by Adam Green/Arizona Sports)
GLENDALE, Ariz. — The sooner Budda Baker shows he can contribute to Arizona’s defense, the better the Cardinals will be.
If Thursday’s preseason opener is any indication, the second-round pick may not be too far off.
Baker’s performance in the 20-18 loss to the Dallas Cowboys stood out, as he was credited with six total tackles along with one pass defensed and a QB hit. He was not perfect, but the versatile safety impressed the folks over at ProFootballFocus, and the TV combination of Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth also had nice things to say.
“If there’s one guy that sort of stood out on the defensive side to me,” Collinsworth said, “it was Budda Baker tonight.”
Baker said he saw a lot of Snapchats from his friends pointing out that he was highlighted on the broadcast.
“They sent me that,” he said. “It was cool.”
Another star in the @AZCardinals secondary?@buddabaker32's Hall of Fame Game highlights! 👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/Nog0a1mTG0
— NFL (@NFL) August 4, 2017
On Saturday, following the team’s first practice since the Hall of Fame Game, Cardinals coach Bruce Arians highlighted Baker as someone who “played really fast.”
While not necessarily a surprise — the Cardinals did trade up in the second round to select the Washington product — Baker being able to perform like that after missing all of OTAs and minicamp was certainly welcome.
“Missing all of OTAs, he’s a really bright guy; he’s intense,” Arians said. “He’ll bust something when he’s going full speed, when he does it. I like his coverage ability.
“It’s a shame he missed all OTAs because he’d be way, way ahead of where he is right now. He’d be pressing some guys in that first group.”
Baker understands he would be further along had his school schedule not prohibited him from being with the Cardinals all offseason, and while he thinks about what could have been, he said, with a smile, that it’s all about taking things day-by-day.
Baker said he felt like he played “decent” Thursday, and did not get too amped up or nervous because it was just football.
“I just tried to think of it as football, I was just playing a game,” he added. “It was very exciting wearing the Cardinal red.”
The more Baker plays like this, the more likely people are to wonder what kind of impact he can make this season. Seen as a Tyrann Mathieu-type who can make plays all over the field from a variety of different positions, the 5-foot-10, 195-pound Baker would make the defense that much more dynamic, while also giving them a bit of depth and insurance.
But just because he could be very helpful does not mean the Cardinals will force him onto the field when he’s not ready.
“You can’t push it,” Arians said. “We’ve got veterans back there that we trust that are good players, so you can’t push him into the lineup if he ain’t ready, because that one mental error could cost you a game in the real season.”
Baker understands the thinking, but figures the more reps he gets, either in training camp or preseason games, the shorter his learning curve will be. He was pleased with his tackling Thursday, but regretted not blitzing off the edge on one play in which he felt he could have made a tackle for loss.
But for a first outing with minimal offseason work, the rookie did enough to make you believe he could be an impact player sooner rather than later.
“For me, I’m just trying to take it day-by-day, not trying to think about the future,” he said. “So if I get better day-by-day, once the regular season comes up I feel like I’ll be at my best.”
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Comments
15 Comments
Bethea will very likely fill Jefferson's old role. Jefferson ran a 4.75 40 coming out, Bethea ran a 4.33 40 time. Now that was 9-10yrs ago, but I'm sure at worst Bethea is still as fast as Jefferson probably a bit faster and more athletic. AZ won't ask him to cover a lot, that will be left to Mathieu and Baker, AZ will utilize the 5"11/209pd Bethea as a run stopping hitter in the box as TJ was.
IMO, I hope Antoine Bethea is able to stay healthy and play all 16 games. While he's smaller than Adrian Wilson, he's almost as good a tackler, plus he is known to be a great teacher. Arizona is likely going to add at 3 new starters to their defense, and they'll all benefit greatly from Bethea's ability to get them in the right spots. My only question with Bethea is his lack of exceptional foot speed, which Arizona may be able to minimize because of all the pressure they're likely going to be able to bring, which will not only require him to cover for shorter distances, but which might give him a chance to turn ballhawk, since he likely will be a target.
Baker is going to be one of the best players in Arizona's secondary, arguably my favorite pick of the 17 draft, Budda Baker is a flat-out baller. He was the best player on the field the other night. The 5"10/200pd S/CB showed what made him one of the top 3 ranked safety's in the draft, he excelled in pass coverage allowing just 0.29yds per coverage snaps shutting down one of the Boy's starting WRs & was a heat seeking missile in the run game coming down hill very fast thumping people. Their is still 4 games left to be played with a month left of T-Camp, with the kind of talent Baker has by the time pre-season wraps up he will be AZ's 3rd safety in their nickel defense, which AZ plays the vast majority of the time & at some point in season will over take Antoine Bethea moving into a starting role, he has far to much talent not to. Baker and Mathieu playing in the same secondary allows AZ's DC to get very creative in his play calling & makes the Cardinals extremely versatile on the backend in their Nickel/Dime defensive packages which AZ pretty much stays in damn near. With Mathieu back to All-Pro form and the drafting of S/CB Budda Baker, QB's are going to dread going against the AZ pass defense.