Budda Baker gets love from NFL coaches, scouts and execs in ESPN’s safety rankings.
You don’t have to convince Arizona Cardinals fans of the greatness of safety Budda Baker. They believe he is one of the best safeties in the NFL. Yet he rarely comes up in top safeties lists, at least when it comes to analytics and analysts.
However, when you ask football guys, they think highly of Baker, and that is shown in the latest from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. Coaches, execs and scouts voted for their top 10 safeties and Baker made the list.
He comes in at No. 8.
2025 NFL safety rankings: Budda Baker, No. 8
He was on every single ballot, ranking as high as fourth and no lower than 10th. That’s impressive. But it makes sense. After all, he has been to seven Pro Bowls, selected in six straight seasons as a safety, and that is a reflection of fan, coach and player rankings.
“Unreal production when moving forward,” an NFC executive said. “Missed more tackles this past year but made a ton of plays behind/at/near the line of scrimmage. And he played all 17 games.”
As one NFL coordinator put it, Baker frequently limits big plays with his tackling, which offsets his low interception totals. His 164 tackles and 10 tackles for loss were among the best at his position in 2024.
Baker isn’t like other safeties, but no one does what Baker does better than he does. That is what makes him great. He has to be accounted for.
It is great to see that coaches and evaluators value more than just interceptions and pass breakups. That is what analytically gets praise, but imagine if Baker were on a team like Baltimore, San Francisco or another nationally followed team. He is a star here. He would be a national star.
The Cardinals are fortunate to have him, and he continues the tradition of having high-end safeties, following Larry Wilson and Adrian Wilson.
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