Cardinals safety Budda Baker has Cowboys, OC Klayton Adams ready to expect the unexpected

FRISCO — Cowboys offensive coordinator Klayton Adams spent the previous two seasons as the offensive line coach and run-game coordinator in Arizona. It was a busy job: so much so that Adams said he didn’t spend too much time watching what his Cardinals’ defense did the last two seasons. His focus, he said, was on his own tasks.

Adams didn’t have to spend too much time watching the Cardinals’ defense to know about one of its most pivotal pieces, however.

“He’s an exciting player to watch if you’re a fan,” Adams said of Cardinals safety Budda Baker. “Not as much fun when I’m sitting there watching [scouting film of him] with the remote.”

Baker, now in his ninth season, has been a Pro Bowler seven times. He’s a Cardinals captain and someone who’s earned the trust of the Arizona coaches to do whatever he wants. That’s what makes him so challenging to go up against.

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Part of the chess match between quarterbacks and opposing defenses is reading what a coverage might look like before the snap and attacking it or adjusting accordingly. Those projections for a quarterback are based on certain rules. In Cover 2 looks, for example, there will be two safeties playing zone coverage deep, splitting the field in half.

Baker, the Cowboys have noticed, plays by his own rules — a luxury awarded to only the best and smartest safeties.

When asked about Baker, Adams used a quote he said he once heard from former NFL quarterback Phillip Rivers.

“The hardest DBs to throw at are the ones who don’t play by the rules,” Adams said. “That’s a little bit of Budda’s game. He might be standing on the line of scrimmage and playing the middle third. He’s unpredictable.

“He’s explosive, he plays the game the right way. He’s got a ton of juice out there.”

Adams has also said before that every challenge also comes with an opportunity when it comes to game-planning. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott alluded to that dichotomy when it comes to facing Baker.

“When you have the freedom that Budda does and plays the game and sees the game way he does — he’s very instinctual, he’s going to make some plays — we’ve got to make sure that we can use that to our advantage as well,” Prescott said. “Him shooting the gap or him trying to time the motion or playing to what he thinks he knows is a play from last week. We’ve just got to have counters off of that.

“He’s a hell of a player. And to the unpredictable or just not knowing where he is, you’re going to know where he is pre-snap, but post-snap it can change in a blink. That’s just a credit to him, credit to the freedom he has in this defense and he’s playing well.”

The Cowboys should have some chances. They’ve been excellent at home on offense. The Cardinals have a defense that’s ranked near league average in most snaps.

Points are expected. When it comes to Baker specifically, however, expect the unexpected.

Twitter: @JoeJHoyt

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