It has been nearly a full month since the Kansas City Chiefs have signed ex-Giants CB DeAndre Baker to the practice squad. The plan, at the time, was to get Baker up to speed and eventually elevate him to the 53-man roster. Naturally, fans who were excited about his arrival have been a bit impatient, with many wondering why the former first-round draft pick has yet to join the active roster.
Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo commented on Baker’s situation ahead of the Week 12 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He wouldn’t, at the time, predict any sort of timeline for his arrival on the 53-man roster. He also explained why they’re taking things slowly with Baker.
“Yeah, I’ll be honest with you, I won’t even go down that road,” Spagnuolo said. “That’s really hard. I will tell you this, I just grabbed him coming off the field to say how’d your first week go. He said probably the right thing, he said, ‘Coach, it got a little bit better every day.’ Listen, we’ve got to remember that this young man has not played football this year. It’s different than bringing somebody else out from a practice squad or from another team. We kind of threw him in the fire early on the very first day. I’m saying it myself; I don’t know if that’s really fair. It’s going to take a little bit to get up to speed and I think just his body getting ready to play the speed of football, so we’ll take it slow.”
The team has thrown him into the mix from the get-go, simultaneously they’re taking things slowly with Baker, knowing that when he joined Kansas City it’d been nearly a full calendar year since he last played football. Spagnuolo and the rest of the coaching staff have the luxury of depth at the cornerback position. They don’t need to rush Baker into the lineup before his body and mind are ready.
Approaching Week 14, Chiefs cornerbacks coach Sam Madison provided us with an update. The team is still throwing everything they can at Baker and he’s accepted the challenge, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s ready. He’s still learning to do things the “Kansas City Chiefs way” as Madison would call it.
“He’s moving along, he’s been coming in here early mornings getting a lot of different coaching points and understanding the defense and throwing a lot of different things at him,” Madison said on Thursday. “[We] put him out there against our number one wide receivers by being that he’s on the practice squad and he’s answered the call. Just trying to make sure that he’s on the same page, and like I told you guys before trying to do it our way, the Kansas City Chiefs way and he’s responding. So we’re just going to keep repping him and getting him work, getting his legs back up under because a lot of these guys have a number of weeks on him, because he was out so long.”
Baker is in the process of getting caught up to his teammates, learning the terminology and defensive scheme. That comes on top of the general growing pains of a second-year player in the NFL. Baker is working exclusively on the scout team, facing off with guys like Tyreek Hill and Mecole Hardman on a daily basis. He’s met that challenge and is showing off some of his natural ability. He’s also shown what he’s been able to pick up so far.
“He has some skills, he has some tools, so I see why he was a first-rounder and why people rated him the way he did coming out of college,” Madison continued. “But we’re just going to keep working at him and (Brett) Veach as well as Coach (Andy) Reid they’re doing a very good job with him as well as Coach Spags (Steve Spagnuolo).”
It’d seem that Baker still has a ways to go, but thankfully the Chiefs can elevate him and give him a shot at any given time. For now, the Chiefs Kingdom will just need to trust the process and hope that he continues to show up in practice.
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