The football world awoke Tuesday to some interesting news out of Arizona. No, Bill O’Brien did not suddenly decide to trade J.J. Watt to the Cardinals. Instead, Arizona made the decision to sign safety Budda Baker to a contract extension. That the organization re-upped their young defender was not the big news, but the terms of the deal.
Under the contract, as first reported by Adam Schefter of ESPN, Baker became overnight the highest-paid safety in NFL history:
This was the surprising fact. After all, the league is filled with great safeties, both historically and currently, and to see Baker ascend to that summit is a bit unexpected. While the Arizona defender certainly has a role – which we will get to in a moment – he has struggled at moments. Last year, according to charting data from Pro Football Focus, opposing passers had a quarterback rating of 115.6 when attacking Baker in the passing game. In fact, over his three-year career Baker has allowed eight touchdowns and a passer rating of 119.3 when targeted, without notching an interception.
These numbers led us at Touchdown Wire to leave Baker off our list of the Top 101 players in the game, and the Top 11 safeties in the league. Something readers were quick to point out today on Twitter:
So how does a safety with these kind of coverage numbers earn the highest contract in league history? That can be boiled down to two words: Versatility and disruption.
First, the versatility portion. Last year Baker saw 1,183 defensive snaps. Of those, 544 were as a high safety, 340 of those saw him in the box, 182 of those found Baker in the slot, and he even had 36 along the defensive line and 18 as a boundary cornerback. Versatility is the name of the game in today’s NFL, on both sides of the football. The more you can do – the more roles you can serve – the more valuable you are.
Think about it this way. Offensive coaches such as Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Josh McDaniels and Baker’s own coach Kliff Kingsbury spend all week scheming up ways to get the exact defensive look and personnel they want to attack, and they ways to exploit that ensuing defense. Using motion, shifting and creative personnel packages of their own, these offenses find ways to uncover your weaknesses and then pick at the ensuing scab when the ball is snapped.
That means defenses are trying to catch up. Look at what the Cardinals did this past draft, adding versatile defender Isaiah Simmons. If you look at Simmons’ snap numbers last year at Clemson, they almost mirror what Baker did last season for the Cardinals. Simmons played 299 snaps in the box, 262 snaps at slot cornerback, 132 snaps at free safety, and 116 snaps at defensive line. He also played 13 snaps at outside corner, to make his versatility even more impressive.
Digging deeper, how does this versatility matter on a down-to-down basis? Because if the offense is trying to generate mismatches, you need defenders to counter-act that effort on the fly. Players like Baker and Simmons can be found pressuring the passer off the edge on first down, stopping the run from the box on second down, and constricting a throwing lane from a deep safety alignment on third down. One player to fill three different roles for a defense. No need to substitute or burn a timeout to get the right personnel on the field. No need to waste a timeout when the offense shifts into a formation you were not expecting, because no matter what they do, your personnel can adjust.
Furthermore, versatile players allow you to keep the rest of the lineup around them in roles best suited for them. If Baker – and Simmons – can seamlessly shift from covering a tight end in the box to playing as a deep safety, you can keep the rest of the secondary, or even the linebackers, in alignments and roles where they excel. Smart coaching is all about putting your guys in position to be successful, and Baker – and Simmons – make that job easier for a defensive staff.
Versatility matters for a defense, and both Simmons and Baker bring that to the table. Locking up this pair for the foreseeable future makes a ton of sense for this defense.
But there is another reason why Baker is now the highest-paid safety in league history: Disruption. Baker can bring the ruckus to every area of the field, and in tandem with his versatility, he can do it in a number of different ways.
Let’s start with what he can do at the catch point. While Baker has yet to notch an NFL interception, he had a career-high six pass breakups in 2019. He can impact the throwing lane from a variety of alignments. On this play against the San Francisco 49ers, Baker aligns down near the line of scrimmage, showing a potential blitz over the left tackle. When the Cardinals retreat into a Cover 3 look Baker is the curl/flat defender, and he retreats underneath this route to cause an incompletion:
On this play against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Baker starts the play showing a single-high look, rotated down in the box over the left tackle. But he retreats to a Cover 2 half-field role, before diagnosing the seam route, driving downhill on it, and breaking up the potential completion:
Then there is this play against Tampa Bay. Baker drops down as a buzz defender in a Cover 3 scheme, impacts the play at the catch point, and it leads to an interception from a teammate:
So not technically an interception from Baker himself, but the reason the Cardinals’ offense is taking the field after this play is because of the work from the safety.
Sure, the running game is often an afterthought in today’s NFL, but Baker’s versatility allows him to be a disruptive force against the run. Last year the safety set a career-high with 120 tackles, including 47 tackles graded by PFF as a “stop,” i.e., a defensive tackle that is viewed as a “failure” by the offense. That was also a career-high number.
As you will notice as we work through these plays, Baker’s timing is almost perfect. He is adept at attacking the offensive backfield at just the right moment, making blocking him virtually impossible. Baker is also incredibly gifted at picking his way through traffic and getting to the football.
On this first play against the Los Angeles Rams, Baker aligns in the slot to the right of the offense, but at the moment the ball is snapped he explodes downhill towards the ball-carrier, stopping this play before it gets going:
Against the Seattle Seahawks, the offense tries to use motion to get the defensive look they want to run this play against. As you can see, before the snap Baker rotates from an inside alignment down towards the line of scrimmage as a boundary defender – speaking to that versatility – before chasing this down from behind:
On this play against the Rams, Baker now cheats down to the right side of the offense in response to motion, and again gets himself into the backfield to stop a running play before it starts:
On this example, the San Francisco 49ers try to run power at the Arizona offense. Baker, aligned basically as a linebacker, is having none of it:
Baker’s ability to stop the run, due to his timing, his vision in working towards the ball-carrier and his explosive nature working downhill, are pivotal for what the Cardinals do on defense.
Finally, Baker can be disruptive in the opposing backfield when rushing the passer. Last year he notched a sack, two quarterback hits and nine pressures, and Baker has five sacks over the course of his career. His timing also shows up when he is tasked with pressuring the passer.
Watch the timing, as well as the change-of-direction skills, on this sack of Jared Goff:
Baker times this blitz off the left edge of the offense perfectly, and then beats his blocker with an aggressive inside-out step, which allows Baker to get to the outside and get to Goff for the sack.
On this pressure of 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, Baker again times the blitz perfectly. That disrupts the downfield attempt from Garoppolo and the pass is off the mark, leading to an interception:
Again, not a technical interception for Baker, but the Cardinals again have the football due to his efforts.
There are two reasons Arizona made Baker the highest-paid safety in the game: Versatility and disruption. He can cause havoc from anywhere on the field in a variety of roles, both against the run and the pass. So whatever PFF charting tells you – or this knuckle-head writes when ranking safeties – the Cardinals value him for those two reasons. In today’s NFL, those two reasons are critical to the success of a defense, making Baker quite valuable to Arizona.
