Budda Baker

29-Year-Old SafetyS

Arizona Cardinals

2024 Defense Stats

TCKL

164

SACKS

2.0

INT

2025 Projections

TCKL

SACKS

INT

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2025 Fantasy Outlook

Baker was a constant name in trade rumors but finally got his sought after compensation with a three-year, $54 million extension in December to remain in Arizona. Perhaps not coincidentally, that came as he was wrapping up his first 17-game season as well as the first time he topped 1,000 defensive snaps since 2021. Baker also logged a career-high 164 total tackles, in part due to his ability to stay on the field, but also because he had a near 50-50 split in his playing time between free safety and a box safety - setting him up to be more impactful as a contributor against the run. The Cardinals maintain a reliable set of three safeties in Baker, Jalen Thompson and Dadrion Taylor-Demerson, meaning the team should have the flexibility to deploy Baker as they wish. Fantasy managers should hope that looks similar to last season, because it would likely mean another elite fantasy performance. Read Past Outlooks

RANKS

IDP

Bye Week 8

Height 5'10"

Weight 195

DOB 1/10/1996

College Washington

Drafted 2nd Rd 2017 #36 Overall

Records career-high tackle mark

SArizona Cardinals

January 16, 2025

Baker racked up 164 tackles, including 2.0 sacks, five pass defenses and one forced fumble in 17 games during the 2024 regular season.

ANALYSIS
Since entering the NFL as a second-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, Baker hasn't been involved too much in terms of turnovers (just seven interceptions, seven forced fumbles and five fumble recoveries in 122 career contests). However, he's reached the century mark in tackles five times in eight campaigns, including a personal best (by 17) in 2024. Baker is under contract through the 2027 campaign, so the 29-year-old remains locked in as a top IDP option among the league's defensive backs.

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NFL Stats

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Snap Distribution / Depth Chart

Snap Counts

Snap %

Cardinals 2024 S Snap Distribution See more data like this | See last season's snap counts

B.Budda Baker

J.Jalen Thompson

D.Dadrion Taylor-Demerson

J.Joey Blount

A.Andre Chachere

#% of Team Snaps

102597%

90886%

24824%

202%

30%

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#1 FS

Cardinals

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2024 Budda Baker Split Stats

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Measurables Review

How do Budda Baker's measurables compare to other safeties?

This section compares his draft workout metrics with players at the same position. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that metric and it would be considered average.

Height

5' 10"

Weight

195 lbs

40-Yard Dash

4.45 sec

Shuttle Time

4.08 sec

Cone Drill

6.76 sec

Vertical Jump

32.5 in

Broad Jump

115 in

Bench Press

15 reps

Hand Length

9.00 in

Arm Length

30.75 in

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Past Fantasy Outlooks

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

The biggest knock on Baker in recent seasons has been his inability to stay on the field, as he suffered a shoulder fracture that ended his 2022 season in Week 15 and a hamstring strain cost him five games last year and sent him to injured reserve. When he was on the field in 2023, Baker maintained his role as a mainstay in the defensive unit, which is notable given the overhaul of the coaching staff and the subsequent shift in roles for some of the team's key defensive players. The results on the field were mixed, as Baker delivered an impressive 7.25 tackles per game. On the other hand, he lost a significant amount of playmaking ability, failing to deliver a pass breakup in a season for the first time in his career and going an entire season without an interception for the first time since 2019 - potentially caused by the aforementioned hamstring issue he suffered in Week 2. Assuming there are no health issues in training camp, it's reasonable to project that Baker returns to his familiar playmaking form in 2024.

Baker has racked up triple-digit tackles four times in the last five years, and the 27-year-old went looking for a contract extension this offseason, or a trade to a team that would give him one. New Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon appears to be preparing for the safety's departure by shifting Isaiah Simmons to the secondary, and the fight for snaps between Simmons, Baker and Jalen Thompson could end up hurting the fantasy value of all three. Until a reduced role actually materializes, though, Baker's speed and nose for the football make him an elite option.

Baker was the clear DB1 from 2018 to 2020, producing at a 1,000-snap pace of 119 tackles, which made his 98 tackles on 982 snaps last year unexpected and disappointing. The question is whether 2021 was a fluke or the start of a new era. The Cardinals do have two young LBs who are more toolsy than refined (Isaiah Simmons and Zaven Collins), so Baker might need to clean up more tackles this year.

Baker is probably in his own class as a defensive back IDP thanks to his tackle production alone. Baker's 118 tackles on 1,007 snaps last year was actually the second-lowest tackle rate of his four NFL seasons. His 147-tackle outburst from 2019 is surprisingly close to his baseline — he might have more than one 140-tackle season in his career, and that was true even before the league took up a 17-game schedule. If Baker could produce a few more sacks or interceptions, he would be untouchable as the top DB in most IDP formats.

Linebacker Darius Leonard probably needs to be the first IDP off the board, but there might be a case for Baker to be the second IDP selection. As much as Baker's tackle production will likely decline, if only because 1,146 snaps may be an unsustainably high number, his per-snap tackle rate was so outrageously high last year that anything less than 120 stops per 16 games would be a disappointment. With that said, if Baker fails to secure the top spot among defensive back IDPs this year, then it might have something to do with his poor playmaking production. Baker has yet to intercept his first NFL pass, and he otherwise has just 3.5 sacks on 2,601 career snaps. Still, Baker makes tackles at a uniquely high rate, and the uptempo, pass-happy Arizona offense ensures that opponents will keep throwing often against the Cardinals, preserving ample tackle opportunity for Baker.

Baker might not be as big a name as some defensive backs, but that will change in 2019. His per-snap tackle rate through two years is exceptional - even his 74-tackle rookie season is remarkable considering he played only 517 defensive snaps - and he only turned 23 in January. Furthermore, his playing context could not be better this season. Whether the Kliff Kingsbury offense succeeds is immaterial to Baker - the offense will either score quickly, or turn the ball over quickly, and Baker will be incredibly busy in either case. His listed tackle projection is conservative.

Despite earning no more than eight defensive snaps in a given game until Week 10, the 2017 second-round pick concluded his rookie season with an eye-popping 74 tackles on 48.7 percent of those reps. The impetus for Baker's increased workload was two-fold. First and foremost, the Cardinals lost safety Tyvon Branch for the season in the aforementioned week, but Baker's performance on special teams to that point in the campaign likely gave the coaching staff confidence in his ability to transfer that success to the defensive side of the ball. With the starting strong safety spot secure and Tyrann Mathieu out of the picture, Baker seems to be a near-lock for 100-plus tackles in 2018.

Hardly the playmaker Tyrann Mathieu was coming out of college, Baker was nonetheless plucked in the second round of this year's draft to work as his understudy. Barring an injury to Mathieu, Antoine Bethea or Tyvon Branch, Baker won't earn many defensive snaps in 2017, leaving special teams as the platform in which he's most likely to do work.

More Fantasy News

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SArizona Cardinals

December 30, 2024

Baker logged seven tackles (one solo) and two pass defenses during the Cardinals' 13-9 loss to the Rams on Sunday.