The Arizona Cardinals are stuck between a rock and a hard place with star safety Budda Baker, who requested a trade after expressing his displeasure with the team on social media. Baker, a five-time Pro Bowler, was vocal about expressing how things have gotten “personal” between he and the Cardinals' front office. Some reporting from NFL Network's Ian Rapoport sheds light on why Baker wants to be traded- and how the team plans to handle the situation.
“Budda Baker wants an adjustment to his contract. He wants to be the highest-paid- or among the highest paid. Derwin James is currently the highest paid safety in the NFL and it does sound like he would like to make around there. And for the Cardinals, it was more of a situation where they're like ‘This is one of the heartbeats of our defense, this is a linchpin. He is a great player, a great human, we just don't want to trade him.'”
Baker, who has two years remaining on his current contract, wants to be among the highest-paid safeties in the NFL.
The Cardinals star is currently the seventh-highest paid safety but has been one of the league's most productive at the position, rattling off four 100-tackle seasons while tallying seven interceptions and 7.5 sacks in his career.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals simply do not want to trade Baker.
Arizona really has one option if they truly do want Baker around for the long haul: give him what he wants.
This is one of the first big conflicts of the Monti Ossenfort-Jonathan Gannon Cardinals regime.
It will be interesting to see how the Cardinals handle this situation.