Kansas City Chiefs CB DeAndre Baker returned to the field on Saturday for the first time following a broken femur in Week 17 of the 2020 NFL season.
It was his first on-field action since suffering the season-ending injury, allowing him to gain some confidence prior to the arrival of veteran players on Monday. Speaking with reporters on Sunday, Baker revealed that he’s feeling near full-strength heading into training camp.
“Yeah, I’m pretty close to 100%,” Baker said.
The injury wasn’t easy on Baker, who’d already faced other challenges in his NFL career. An off-field incident saw him released by the New York Giants — the team that drafted him. Facing an entirely new challenge with a significant injury, Baker credits the Chiefs’ training staff for getting him back to this point.
“It was definitely frustrating, but Rick (Burkholder) and his staff, man, they get in and work every day,” Baker said. “They got me to here and now I’m back on the field, ready to work.”
It was tough on Baker, being sidelined during the Chiefs’ playoff run in 2020. His Week 17 start against the Chargers showed a lot of promise and while he didn’t know if he’d get an opportunity to play in the playoffs, he wanted to continue building that momentum with his new team.
“I mean there was a few things I could have done better, but overall I feel like I played well,” Baker said. “I could have did a lot of things better, though. Just a little bit of technique things that I have to clean up, that I’m working on today.”
This offseason, he’s done a lot of work to pick up where he left off. Even when he was still sidelined with his injury throughout OTAs and mandatory minicamp, he put in work to ensure that he could be at his best when he returned to the field.
“Oh yeah, I gained a lot from that,” Baker said. “I was in the meeting rooms and got a lot of mental reps, so whenever I’d be able to get on the field, I’d be able to help the team and I could be fluid with everything that we do.”
Now that he’s been back, he’s out to prove himself to the coaching staff and his teammates. He wants them to understand that he deserves the second chance he’s been given — that he can contribute to the team’s winning ways.
“I just want to help the team and just show the guys that I want to be here,” Baker said. “Come out there and work and show them that I deserve to be here.”
That second chance is something that the former first-round draft pick doesn’t intend to take for granted.
“It means a lot to me,” Baker said. “The Chiefs gave me another chance at a phenomenal organization. I’m just here to work. I’m happy to be here.”
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