Eagles Today

Ulterior Motive? Budda Baker Reaches Out on Jalen Hurts Eagles Contract

Arizona Cardinals safety Buddy Baker, who requested a trade over the weekend, sent a message to Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts.

Ed Kracz

The Philadelphia Eagles now have cost certainty at the quarterback position, and because Jalen Hurts’ contract extension isn’t expected to kick in until 2024, they are also still about $20 million under the salary cap, per overthecap.com.

There is certainly no shortage of places to spend it for general manager Howie Roseman.

The most recent possibility of a splurge came on Friday when Budda Baker requested a trade from the Arizona Cardinals. The safety wants to be the highest-paid player at his position, much the same way the Eagles quarterback will now be the highest-paid at his.

Heck, Hurts is now the highest-paid player in all of the NFL after Monday’s breaking news that he and Philadelphia have agreed on a five-year, $255 million contract extension.

Presumably unprompted, Baker tweeted out his congratulations to Hurts on the new deal.

It’s one thing for Hurts’ teammates do to it, and some have.

Cornerback Darius Slay tweeted: Love it…Fam deserves it!!

Right tackle Lane Johnson tweeted: “That’s my quarterback!” with an arm flex emoji.

For Baker to do it, well, it makes one wonder if there is an ulterior motive.

Here is what Baker tweeted: “Hard work Always Prevails!!! Congrats to JHurts. Best thing about a guy like him is the work Never stops!”

Baker, though, is the ultimate teammate, and he has played against Hurts in the past.

When Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray signed his contract extension, one that has him now third on the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league at $46.1M per season, behind Hurts and Aaron Rodger (49M), Baker tweeted: Congrats!!!! Let’s Go To Work!!!

Ed Kracz covers the Philadelphia Eagles for SI's EaglesToday.

Please follow him and our Eagles coverage on Twitter at @kracze.

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Ed Kracz
ED KRACZ

Ed Kracz has been covering the Eagles full-time for over a decade and has written about Philadelphia sports since 1996. He wrote about the Phillies in the 2008 and 2009 World Series, the Flyers in their 2010 Stanely Cup playoff run to the finals, and was in Minnesota when the Eagles secured their first-ever Super Bowl win in 2017. Ed has received multiple writing awards as a sports journalist, including several top-five finishes in the Associated Press Sports Editors awards.

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