Background and career
Bishard "Budda" Baker (born January 10, 1996) is an American professional football strong safety for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Washington Huskies, and was selected by the Cardinals in the second round of the 2017 NFL draft. Baker is an eight-time Pro Bowler and a four-time All-Pro member.
Baker's mother started calling him Budda as a baby since she thought he looked like a Buddha doll. Baker attended Bellevue High School in Bellevue, Washington. He played safety and running back in football, and also ran track. As a senior, he was named the Seattle Times High School Athlete of the Year. Baker was rated as a four-star recruit and was ranked among the top safeties in his class. He originally committed to the University of Oregon to play college football, but flipped to the University of Washington the night before National Signing Day.
As a true freshman at Washington in 2014, Baker started all 14 games, recording 80 tackles, one interception, and one sack. Following his freshman campaign, Baker was named a Freshman All-American by USA Today. As a sophomore in 2015 he started 12 of 13 games and was named All-Pac-12 Conference after recording 49 tackles and two interceptions. Baker was named a pre-season All-American prior to the 2016 season. Following the 2016 season, Baker earned consensus all-American honors as a result of being named a first-team all-American by The Sporting News and the Football Writers Association of America, and a second-team all-American by the American Football Coaches Association and The Associated Press. On January 3, 2017, Baker announced his decision to forgo his senior season and enter the 2017 NFL draft.
Baker attended the NFL Combine and completed all of the combine and positional drills. He participated at Washington's Pro Day and only ran positional drills for over 50 NFL team representatives and scouts. The majority of NFL draft experts and analysts projected Baker to be a second round pick. Teams were impressed by his performance but were concerned his lack of size could affect his ability to play in the NFL. He was ranked the top nickelback available in the draft by NFL analyst Mike Mayock, was ranked the second best free safety prospect by NFLDraftScout.com, and the fourth best safety in the draft by Sports Illustrated and ESPN.
The Arizona Cardinals selected Baker in the second round (36th overall) of the 2017 NFL draft. The Cardinals traded their 2017 second-round (45th overall), fourth-round (119th overall), and seventh-round (197th overall) picks to the Chicago Bears in return for the 36th overall pick to draft Baker and also received a seventh-round pick (221st overall). He was the fourth safety selected in 2017 and one of three Washington defensive backs selected, along with Kevin King and Sidney Jones.
How Budda Baker makes money
On May 25, 2017, the Cardinals signed Baker to a four–year, $6.83 million rookie contract that included $3.88 million guaranteed and an initial signing bonus of $3.10 million. 2020 On August 25, 2020, the Arizona Cardinals signed Baker to a four–year, $59 million contract extension that included $33.10 million guaranteed, $22.10 million guaranteed upon signing, and also stipulated an initial signing bonus of $10 million.
