Budda Baker Press Conference – 10.02.25 | AZ Cardinals

How y’all doing? One. You know, it’s pretty light today. I like light. I know. Uh Nick brought up again the idea of trying to get more turnovers and I know you keep guys keep talking about this. I’m curious, does the whatever way you’re playing defense against a certain opponent? Does that play into it? Like, do you need to play a certain way or does it not matter what the play call is and what if if things are going well, you guys can still force turn? Yeah, I mean like you said, you know, uh the the game’s about the football. So, no matter who we play, that’s the number one goal is to get the football. Of course, there’s uh different scenarios and different um you know, situations where we can go after the ball versus not going after the ball and just getting the tackler down. Um so, you know, we we preach that every day and uh that’s that’s a main focus, you know, um that’s something we’re trying to do. How much of that can be taught and how much of that is just feel when you’re out there and the game is flying? Oh, I’m going to go for the pick or I’m going to go for the PBU. Yeah. Yeah. Like you said, like you said, um it’s it’s taught, but it’s also, you know, the feeling in the game. You know, for example, if I’m in a one-on-one situation with a running back and it’s either get him down or he’s scoring, that’s where you’re not really going to try and go after the ball, you’re going to try and get the guy down. um versus, you know, when one guy has the ball carrier raveled up, you know, the second man, third man in can go for the strip attempts. You know, situations like those is, you know, what we preach about with, for instance, Josh had a strip sack the other day. You guys didn’t get the fumble. Yeah. And fumbles can be there’s there’s there’s a randomness to it. Is is there ever a point where you guys or coaches are like we we have to get those fumbles or is it do you just kind of understand when the ball is loose hopefully it’ll be in a place where you guys can get it but sometimes that’s just not going to happen. Yeah. I mean u that’s how the game goes. You know the game is is a game of inches. So you know he had a great strip sack. The ball actually as he stripped it the ball was in his arm but just how fast things are going. He’s trying to get the sack get the ball out. And those situations are very hard to for someone to get a strip sack and understand the ball’s right there. It’s like a a a millisecond, you know. So, it’s just uh all hats around the football. That’s that’s what we preach no matter what. So, whether it’s getting a sack or getting the guy down, if all hats are around the ball, we got more color to the ball. Um you know, we have a higher opportunity to to get the the fumble recoveries. And in that situation, you know, the ball came out and their guys did a good job of getting on it, but you know, um, you know, we were all running to the ball trying to get there, but it just didn’t bounce the right way at that point. So, that’s kind of how it is um, in the game. Beyond the record and stats, what do you see on Tate from this Tennessee offense that might be a challenge for you guys? Yeah, you know, you got the number one pick in Cam and a guy who has a very strong arm, can make all the throws inside the pocket, outside the pocket. Um, you know, they got some lethal weapons at wide receiver. Um, even tight end, you know, they, you know, like they say, um, they’re very close and they’re they’re this is an NFL, this is a NFL football team. They have all the guys, um, available to win. And um with that quarterback, he’s he’s great at making those, you know, off off throws, running outside the pocket. You know, sometimes, you know, throws that a quarterback wouldn’t really make. He he has the arm talent to make those throws and that is uh definitely hard as a DB. You got to be plastering at all times because he can throw the football at all at all points. So, um great team that’s coming in trying to get a W and you know, we’re we’re playing at home. very excited for the opportunity to to go against a good team. Have you ever um you’ve been through a lot of iterations of this team obviously and and there’s been a couple years where it hasn’t gone as well. So, you’ve been on the maybe the other side of when you’re struggling and you’re going up against a better team. Do you ever try and explain that to maybe younger guys like, “Hey, I’ve I’ve been in this situation before and like in in that locker room they’re ready to come and get that first win or Yeah. break a streak or whatever.” Do you try and use first person experience to explain to guys like you better not be sleeping on these guys even with the Yeah, I mean not really just because it’s this is the NFL, you know, uh every team is liable to win and lose no matter if you’re 13 and 0 or or 0 and 13, you know, anybody can be beat. It’s a it’s a matter of who who puts in that work throughout the week. um who who can live in the present one day at a time and who can execute and um play a game with motor and violence on Sundays or Thursdays or Mondays, you know, so on game days. So, it’s definitely um you know, we we don’t need any type of other hype talk. We understand we’re in the NFL and this is our job and this is what we have to do in order to win. And we have to execute. We got to do our job. But we got to play with motor and violence and uh you know eliminate explosives and get turnovers so we can get the ball back to the to the offense. So that’s our number one goal week in and week out. No, no matter who we play and um we got a team that’s, you know, hungry to try and get a W and um you know, they’re going to be playing very hard just like we’re going to be playing hard and, you know, let the best man win. Last season, we talked to Garrett Williams and the coaches on just how difficult it is, even though he made it look easy of going inside to outside the slot. And I know you obviously can’t speak for Jaylen, but as someone who’s kind of been feeling that role, can you share some insight on just how tough that is, especially kind of once the season has started for what he’s been doing the last couple weeks? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s definitely tough to go in there and and play on the inside and um you know, he has full ability to be able to do that. um the way we play our defense, we kind of our nickel kind of plays um you know, a little bit more safety and you know, some some some corner at times, but um JT has all the attributes to to do what he’s doing and he’s going to continue to get better at uh you know, the nickel position and we’re going to continue to to do different things. So, um you know, very happy to, you know, have him there. You know, I can I communicate to him a lot because, you know, we’re kind of next to each other when he’s at nickels. So, it’s definitely something to uh where I know he’s getting better and better and he’s um you know, he’s he’s one of the best guys to do that and one of the best guys at safety as well. So, um very very uh excited to continue to to gel with everyone and continue to get better and um you know um when those guys that are injured comes back, you know, the the standard is going to be the standard. What’s that say about his mental capacity to be able to kind of take more on his plate and kind of run with it? Yeah, like it’s it’s great. You know, he’s he’s a guy that um you know, he’s he’s in the coach’s room all the time um getting little intricate details that he needs to to play at a nickel position, but also you know, he plays safety um and in certain positions as well. So, just that communication of understanding our job and knowing what to do at various positions for him is um it goes to a test of his knowledge of the game. So that’s very special to have a guy who can play multiple things and um yeah, very excited to continue to get better on defense. You’ve seen Krelll since he was a rookie, you know, and now being forced into some action due to some injuries. He he seems to be playing with a lot of confidence making. He looks like he went to Buddha Baker School of Field tackling. He’s making some eyepopping plays. What have you seen from him overall and uh you know, what do you think his future is? just uh him being comfortable, you know, he’s just very comfort comfortable now and um you know, he you communicate the calls to him, he taps off, he understands what to do each and every play compared to, of course, like his rookie year where he might not know know it all the way, but uh you know, he’s at the point where he knows everything and as long as we get that communication to him, he plays with confidence, high motor, and a guy who can make those short tack tackles uh you know, off the edge. So that’s what we need at the corner position cuz we know those uh teams do a great job of trying to crack our safeties and force the ball outside and those corners got to tackle. So um he’s doing a great job. Sky’s the limit for him. I’m um excited to see him continue to get better and uh control what he can control and um you know just take one play at a time and play great defense.

Safety Budda Baker addresses the media ahead of Week 5 vs the Tennessee Titans.

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