ESPN’s Kiper: Budda Baker a Round 2-3 rookie who will play immediately

Back in 2013, Tyrann Mathieu very quickly showed that the Arizona Cardinals would want him on the field.

Chosen in the third round, 69th overall, the former LSU star impressed in offseason work and training camp and found himself getting important reps in Week 1.

Normally, however, the Cardinals tend to try and bring their rookies along slowly, though at times — such as with Brandon Williams last season — roster issues have led to that process being accelerated.

The team’s first-round pick in this year’s draft, linebacker Haason Reddick, is expected to have a role, though that is not surprising for someone chosen on the draft’s first day.

But what about the players chose on Day 2? The Cardinals chose safety Budda Baker in the second round and receiver Chad Williams in the third round, though according to ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr., it is Baker whose name will be called often in Week 1.

As he wrote in an Insider piece, the Washington product is one of a handful of rookies from rounds two and three who will play immediately.

Arizona lost both of its starting safeties in free agency and replaced them only with veteran Antoine Bethea. Even if Tyrann Mathieu is expected to play more free safety in 2017, there are openings for Baker. But I also think he could play slot corner for the Cardinals, who didn’t get much competent cornerback play last year outside of Patrick Peterson. Marcus Cooper was OK and is now in Chicago, and rookie Brandon Williams and veteran Justin Bethel struggled.

As I wrote in my draft grades, the comparison I made for the 5-10 Baker before the draft was to Mathieu. Now the Cardinals have two similar tenacious defenders who can play safety and corner.

Baker himself said he understands and appreciates the comparisons to Mathieu, and it’s safe to say if he is anything close to that kind of player the Cardinals will feel quite good about their pick.

They certainly have high expectations for Baker, whom they selected after making a trade to move up in the draft and select.

As a junior at Washington, he notched 70 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss, three sacks and two interceptions. For his college career, the defensive back amassed 200 tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss, four sacks, five interceptions and 24 passes defensed.

In college he was a playmaker much in the mold of Mathieu, who also plays bigger than his size.

“A guy that is an extremely violent blitzer off the edge but also has very unique coverage skills, whether it be on a slot receiver, a receiver period, a tight end,” Cardinals defensive coordinator James Bettcher told Off the Edge with B-Train on 98.7 FM, Arizona’s Sports Station Wednesday.

“Maybe he’s down in the box covering a back at times, like we’ve done with some of our safety packages.”

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