BIOGRAPHY
Budda Baker was born on January 10th, 1996, in Bellevue, Washington. He is a safety in the NFL
Baker played college football at the University of Washington. In 2014, Budda was named Freshman All-America by SportsonEarth.com and by scout.com. As a true freshman, Baker started every game at safety. He made seven tackles in the season opener at Hawai'i, six tackles in the win over Eastern Washington, and made nine tackles, including one for a loss, in the win at California.
In 2015, Baker Played in and started, 12 of 13 games during the season. He racked up seven tackles, and a pass break-up in the Heart of Dallas Bowl won over Southern Miss and was co-winner of the team's Don James Perseverance Award. In 2016 He Led the Huskies with 71 total tackles and ten tackles for loss was named first-team All-America by the NCAA and shared the team leads with six tackles, in the win over Idaho. Baker had a forced fumble on the opening kickoff of the game, He led to the UW scoring on the first play from scrimmage and was named the coaches' defensive player of the week after finishing the Arizona State game with one-and-a-half sacks and five total tackles.
The Arizona Cardinals selected Baker in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft. He made his professional regular season debut in the Arizona Cardinals’ season-opener at the Detroit Lions. Budda finished his rookie season in 2017 with 74 combined tackles and seven pass deflections in 16 games and seven starts. On week 5 of his 2018 career Baker collected a season-high 16 combined tackles, deflected a pass, and made a sack during a 28-18 win at the San Francisco 49ers. He finished the season second on the team with 102 tackles through 14 games and 13 starts.
On August 25, 2020, Baker signed a four-year, $59 million extension with the Cardinals, making him the highest-paid safety in NFL history, at the time.
Baker's mother started calling him Budda as a baby since his mother thought he looked like a Buddha doll.
