The Steelers<\/a>, perhaps just one missing piece away from boasting one of the NFL’s best defenses, were urged by Punturi to trade for Arizona Cardinals<\/a> All-Pro safety Budda Baker<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Don’t be fooled by some negative reports regarding Baker’s 2025 season, because what he does as well as anyone is patrol from the free safety position,” Punturi wrote.<\/a> “While he was tasked with playing more snaps in the slot and across the field, when Baker is roaming between the free safety position and blitzing from the box, he’s a dynamic defender.<\/p>\n “The Steelers could use Baker as a center fielder in their new defense. That would put him back in his element and free up DeShon Elliott to be an aggressive strong safety alongside him. When Elliott was at his best in 2024, he was shot out of a cannon exploding toward the ball carrier and line of scrimmage. He can play any role asked of him, but his sure tackling is a huge addition to the team’s rushing defense.”<\/p>\n Baker, drafted by the Cardinals in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft, has appeared in 138 games and made 128 starts, recording 1,021 combined tackles, eight interceptions, seven forced fumbles, 51 tackles for loss, and 10 sacks. He’s earned eight Pro Bowl honors, two First-Team All-Pro selections, and two Second-Team All-Pro selections.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n With Baker 30 years old heading into the 2026 season, it’s hard to imagine the Steelers needing to shell out premium draft capital to make this trade a reality. But it remains to be seen if the Cardinals will even be willing to trade the cornerstone of their defense.<\/p>\n For up-to-date\u00a0Steelers\u00a0coverage, including any offseason moves, follow us on X\u00a0@TheSteelersWire<\/a>\u00a0and give our\u00a0Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0a like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"June 14, 2026, 1:14 p.m. ET It may be one of the slowest months of the NFL offseason,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[95878,375,390,2604,1327,7,6,119737,96718,96719,95882,95890,97154,114627,95896,95888,95895,95899,118065,96720,96071,96716,95883,95881],"class_list":["post-919337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona-cardinals","tag-accessfree","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-arizonacardinals","tag-cardinals","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-sourcesteelers-wire","tag-sstssportsnflsteelers","tag-sstsnsteelers","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagarizona-cardinals","tag-tagbudda-baker","tag-tagdeshon-elliott","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagpittsburgh-connect","tag-tagpittsburgh-steelers","tag-tagsmg-timely","tag-tagsports-illustrated","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116752778753962603","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781505915_798_86618667007-usatsi-26862833.jpg\")