As Arizona Cardinals' season comes to a close, Budda Baker reflects on what could be

Way back in the day during inevitable disasters at sea, it was usually customary for the captain to go down with the ship.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals’ best player, safety and team captain Budda Baker, it’s the same kind of thing in the desert.

Baker, who this week became the only member of the team to be named to the 2024 Pro Bowl, has experienced only one winning season during his seven years with the Cardinals. That came in 2021, when Arizona finished 11-6 but flamed out immediately during an embarrassing wild-card loss at the Rams.

Another losing campaign comes to an end on Sunday when the Cardinals (4-12) close out the season at home against the visiting Seahawks (8-8). Baker and the Cardinals can knock Seattle out of the playoff race with a victory, something that has eluded this team for most of the season. A win, however, would be Arizona’s second straight and third in five weeks.

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“It never gets easy,” Baker said when asked how the losing has affected him, especially when watching tape of mistake-filled games on Mondays. “Me, personally, I don’t like to lose. I understand that’s kind of been a process throughout this year, we’ve been losing games. It’s just understanding that’s never acceptable, to lose games.”

This has been a strange season for Baker, the former second-round pick out of Washington who turns 28 on Wednesday. He missed five games with a hamstring injury earlier in the year after missing only five games total during his first six years with the team.

“I never missed five games (in a season) in my whole entire career, even Little League, high school, college,” Baker lamented.

Though he ranks second on the Cardinals with 77 total tackles, he doesn’t have an interception, or a single pass breakup. He doesn’t have a sack, a forced fumble, or a fumble recovery, either. That’s been unusual in itself for the six-time Pro Bowl selection, but it’s even stranger still considering his coaches have tried moving him around to try and get him closer to the football and make more of his signature plays.

'This year it's kind of frustrating'

“My whole career I don’t really see the football, but this year it’s kind of frustrating sometimes because It’s just going away, going away,” Baker said. “But as long as I’m doing my job at a high level, as long as I’m continuing to help players and continue to help guys understand route concepts or different things in the defense to help them play better, that’s my main goal.

“Of course, it’s for us to win, but also for guys around me to make plays and guys around me to understand certain situations that happen because I’m trusting them to be there to make that play just like they’re trusting me.”

Though Baker acknowledged this season has weighed on him more than any other, he’s been the same exact person and player that coach Jonathan Gannon held up at the start of the year as the gold for what it takes to be the ideal Arizona Cardinal.

Asked what he appreciates most about Baker, Gannon said, “As a player, his versatility, reliability, toughness, effort, and brain.”

“As a leader, I think his attitude. The guy comes to work, he never has a bad day. He comes to work always wanting to improve and get better. I would say the sign of a really good player is that he always elevates others around him since he has been here and since we’ve been here. That’s what he does — and not just the safeties or the back end — I’m talking about the linebackers and the D-line and the coaches, so that’s a valuable piece to have.”

But what about his peace?

Like another famous face of the franchise, former wide receiver great Larry Fitzgerald, Baker has watched a big portion of the prime of his career disappear without enjoying winning seasons or much postseason success, even to a lesser degree than Fitzgerald.

Don’t forget, it was just a little more than a year ago when Baker revealed his unhappiness, especially as it related to his contract in Arizona. He went public with a message to the team that he would demand a trade if it wasn’t made clear to him that he would continue to be an important part of the Cardinals’ future.

'Last ride' for Budda?

The Cardinals tweaked his contract, which made him feel wanted and respected, but earlier this week Baker sent out a semi-cryptic message via X. It read, “Last ride Sunday at State Farm Stadium. I appreciate the loyal for all your support. The (No.) 3 haters aye I appreciate y’all too. It’s love either way.”

Baker said there was no hidden meaning in his post, saying, “It’s about the season. It’s the last game of the season. Of course, we’re not going to the playoffs, so you always win in the last game of the season, especially at home. It’s been a while. Just being able to go and play in front of our fans, just trying to get a W, that’s going to be the main focus. Everything else will take care of itself.”

Baker said he wants to continue to be a part of the Cardinals’ future and that he likes the direction the team is headed under General Manager Monti Ossenfort and Gannon.

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“I definitely can appreciate Monti and JG,” he said. “They do a great job of getting the team believing and working and grinding each and every week. We stay together even when adversity hits. There’s no finger pointing and that’s what I love as a player. At the end of the day, we’re kind of like a family.

“As long as we stay together and just continue to grind and continue to take it one play at a time, we can be great.”

The Cardinals have had their moments this season, like last week’s upset victory in Philadelphia, but they haven’t been able to sustain that level, let alone reach for greatness. What they’ve been is resilient, and with resiliency comes the need for patience, which is what Baker has been trying to show from the start.

“For me, personally, just being a veteran, it’s about having that patience to not go off on guys every single time because of course it’s going to go in one ear and out the other one day,” Baker said, smiling.

“This is my fourth coaching staff, second GM. It’s the first time I’ve seen a lot of rookies playing meaningful football. For me, it’s just understanding that it’s a process and no one’s going to be perfect the first time they get onto the field — or even the second, third or fourth time — but as long as we’re continuing to get better as a group and hopefully, not messing up the same thing twice.

“Me personally, you mess it up one time you chalk it up to the game. You mess it up a second time, it’s like, ‘All right now. You’re messing up the same thing the same exact time, the third time in a row I might go off on you.’ That’s just how it is. But this season has been a grind. We work hard each and every week. We work hard each and every day. And I know that Sundays it doesn’t show, but just know we’re definitely getting better as a group, we’re getting better as a team, and we’re going to continue to grind and continue to work.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Despite another losing season, Budda Baker says Cardinals are on track