Cardinals Reward Safety Budda Baker With Pay Raise

Earlier this offseason, Arizona Cardinals star safety Budda Baker requested a trade from the team. He was seeking a long-term extension and wasn’t much interested in playing for a rebuilding team such as the Cardinals.

But, Arizona was not interested in trading him as he is one of their key contributors defensively. His trade market was a strong one, as multiple teams would love to add a player of his caliber to the back end of their defense.

While trade rumors persisted up until training camp, those can now officially be put to bed. While the Cardinals didn’t give Baker the extension that he was hoping for, they met him halfway, giving him a pay raise in 2023 and 2024.

For this season, Baker received $2.4 million in bonuses and incentives with a $300,000 signing bonus according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, via Kevin Patra of NFL.com. The specifics for the raise in 2024 were not revealed, but Baker will be earning more.

In 2020, when he signed his four-year, $59 million extension, Baker reset the safety market and was the highest-paid player at the position. However, in the years since, he has been leapfrogged by six players in total contract value, annual average value and guaranteed money.

Baker was set to earn $13.096 million this year in base salary this year and $14.2 million next season. However, none of that money was guaranteed, which is why he was seeking an extension to amend that. The reworked deal should alleviate any issues between him and the Cardinals heading into the 2023 season, but this is something that will assuredly be revisited in the future.

In six seasons with the Cardinals, Baker has cemented himself as one of the premier safeties in the NFL. He has made the Pro Bowl five times and has three All-Pro nods under his belt; two first-teams and one second-team. 

A versatile playmaker that can play both safety spots and slot cornerback, Baker is someone that new head coach Jonathan Gannon will be relying upon heavily during the upcoming season. After turning only 27 in January, the Washington product has plenty left in the tank to offer a team, whether it is with the Cardinals or elsewhere after this season.