Giants Country

Which Week 2 Opposing Player Would Look Good on Giants? Cardinals Budda Baker

The Giants have some questions at the safety position ahead of camp, and this member of the Arizona Cardinals, whom the Giants see in Week 2, could solve those questions.

Brandon Olsen

Which Week 2 Opposing Player Would Look Good on Giants? Cardinals Budda Baker
Which Week 2 Opposing Player Would Look Good on Giants? Cardinals Budda Baker /
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As we count down to training camp, the Giants Country editorial team went through the rosters of each of the Giants' 2023 regular-season opponents and selected a player that, if the Giants could acquire for the upcoming season, they absolutely should.

Who did we pick from each team? Stay tuned--and yes, for the NFC East teams, we picked two players since the Giants play them twice.

Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Budda Baker, Safety

Height: 5-foot-10 | Weight: 195 lbs.
College: Washington | Exp.: 7 seasons
Career Stats: 650 tackles, 32 tackles for loss, 7 interceptions, 34 passes defended, 6 forced fumbles, 5 fumble recoveries, 7.5 sacks

Given the option to "steal" one player from the Arizona Cardinals, the choices are slim. Luckily there’s a three-time All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowler on their roster at a position that the Giants could use help at.

That would be safety Budda Baker, one of the best safeties in football since his rookie year and a guy who has consistently found ways to be successful, even when the rest of the organization around him has been falling apart.

The Giants currently have Bobby McCain, Dane Belton, Gervarrius Owens, and Jason Pinnock as the main candidates to be paired with Xavier McKinney. While McCain and Belton may very well be able to start the year and play well enough to make Giants fans feel comfortable with the position room, if New York could add an elite option, that would give them a top-tier safety duo.

The best part about this desired “steal”? Baker has requested a trade. And while the Giants won't be serious contenders for Baker's services if the need was greater and the resources there, it's something the Giants could have sought to make happen.

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Where Would He Fit In?

Baker is an elite safety that would fit in as an immediate starter on the back end of the secondary opposite McKinney. Baker and McKinney are versatile safeties that could operate as the box or deep safety, although those labels are somewhat irrelevant in Wink Martindale’s man coverage-heavy defensive system.

With Baker and McKinney being interchangeable pieces, Martindale can draw up even more creative blitz packages. Having two safeties that can roam the deep middle, attack the flats, play man coverage, tackle, and rush the passer could make it a constant guessing game for opposing quarterbacks that almost always look to safeties pre-snap to try and read a defense.

Baker has spent the past two seasons being used all over the field for the Cardinals, most recently having played mostly cover three and cover two. While Baker hasn’t been asked to play much man coverage in recent years, he successfully played it earlier in his career.

In the locker room, Baker, a multi-year captain in Arizona, is an established leader and would further strengthen the culture that this coaching staff has been working to build.

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Brandon Olsen
BRANDON OLSEN

Brandon Olsen is the founder of Whole Nine Sports, specializing in NFL Draft coverage, and is the host of the Locked On Gators Podcast. 

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