Budda signs 3 year extension

[schutd]

Safeties are playing 60% of snaps in coverage.

Would you rather have one that has an INT every 2.5 games for $7m or one that's a good tackle for $18m?

I'd rather not reduce my defensive leaders value down to a black and white statistical relationship.

 

[schutd]

I'd rather spend money on more good players, not overpay a safety for "leadership".

You can get 90% of what Budda offers on the field, plus ball skills, for around half the money.

JC offers leadership, but we aren't overpaying him for it.

Based on your comparative, you can get all that in a guy who will not last on your team more than a season. Youre far too removed from the nuance of the game in this argument.

 

[BACH]

Great call out, but we played a very poor team and that has to be taken into account. If we see the same success against the Rams, I'll be on board with this...

Agree! But the main issue was mitigated with the change of scheme. We'll see how succesful the change is once we play a better opponent.

 

[BritCard]

...and if he could throw the football, he'd be a 40m player, lol.

And despite all of that, he is our best player, and it isn't even close.

3 years / 30 guaranteed seems like a great fit for both sides, especially if a lot of that cap goes into this year. Sadly, he'll likely be gone by this team ever really competes, but I guess you could say the same thing to about 98% of every Cardinal player ever, lol.

Being our best player is relative, you can be both our best player and well overpaid.

 

[BritCard]

I'd rather not reduce my defensive leaders value down to a black and white statistical relationship.

We're paying $18m per year to a safety that has a 110 career passer rating allowed, allows 73% of passes where he is the cover man to be caught and has 7 career interceptions in 8 seasons, because he's a great tackler and has leadership qualities. Both things that are not hard to find in the NFL.

What is hard to find is safeties that can cover and are a threat to the ball. Those are the safeties that get paid.

The top 5 highest paid safeties outside Budda,

Jessie Bates - 84 passer rating allowed, 63% comp rate, 23 career interceptions in 7 seasons.
Xavier McKinney - 69 passer rating allowed, 67% comp rate, 16 career interceptions in 5 seasons
Minkah Fitzpatrick - 81 passer rating, 62% comp rate, 19 career interceptions in 9 seasons
Derwin James - 81 passer rating, 66% comp rate, 9 career interceptions 5.5 seasons
Antoine Winfield - 116 passer rating, 71% comp rate, 7 interceptions in 5 seasons

I just discovered Winfield is also massively overpaid, but him aside you can see the trend. Ballhawk safeties get paid.

You know who the next leading tackler is behind Budda at safety? Nick Cross from Indy. Someone I'm sure you never heard of. He has 7 less tackles, but more importantly has 3 more interceptions, because he has 3.

I love Budda, he's a great downhill player, one of the best in the league. That's just not worth close to $18m per year.

 

[BullheadCardFan]

We're paying $18m per year to a safety that has a 110 career passer rating allowed, allows 73% of passes where he is the cover man to be caught and has 7 career interceptions in 8 seasons, because he's a great tackler and has leadership qualities. Both things that are not hard to find in the NFL.

What is hard to find is safeties that can cover and are a threat to the ball. Those are the safeties that get paid.

The top 5 highest paid safeties outside Budda,

Jessie Bates - 84 passer rating allowed, 63% comp rate, 23 career interceptions in 7 seasons.
Xavier McKinney - 69 passer rating allowed, 67% comp rate, 16 career interceptions in 5 seasons
Minkah Fitzpatrick - 81 passer rating, 62% comp rate, 19 career interceptions in 9 seasons
Derwin James - 81 passer rating, 66% comp rate, 9 career interceptions 5.5 seasons
Antoine Winfield - 116 passer rating, 71% comp rate, 7 interceptions in 5 seasons

I just discovered Winfield is also massively overpaid, but him aside you can see the trend. Ballhawk safeties get paid.

You know who the next leading tackler is behind Budda at safety? Nick Cross from Indy. Someone I'm sure you never heard of. He has 7 less tackles, but more importantly has 3 more interceptions, because he has 3.

I love Budda, he's a great downhill player, one of the best in the league. That's just not worth close to $18m per year.

Agree

As much as Budda is a favorite around here he is way over paid for what he does

 

[Stout]

Does it really matter? I mean whatever isn't used this year rolls over. So IMO it's six in one hand 1/2 a dozen in the other.

As much as it sucks, it does matter, because expecting Monti to spend bucket loads of money under the cap next year isn't realistic. The less cap he spends this season will lead to less of it spent overall. There is no way we're going to use all our cap flexibility next season as it is.

 

[Harry]

They might cut Thompson. Who knows? But it won't be because of cap savings. That was my point.

It won’t be solely because of the cap. That’s just a bonus.

 

[Harry]

The half healthy season we saw from Rodney Hudson was the best C play we had in my 25+ years as a fan.

Froholdt is above average without being great. But you HAVE to love his style of play.

I’m concern. Too often he’s getting manhandled this season and committing penalties to compensate. Unless he improves, he’s a weakness. Maybe not a big enough one to fix this offseason, but this will have to be addressed.

 

[TheCardFan]

As much as it sucks, it does matter, because expecting Monti to spend bucket loads of money under the cap next year isn't realistic. The less cap he spends this season will lead to less of it spent overall. There is no way we're going to use all our cap flexibility next season as it is.

I tend to think its part of the plan...we are in year 2 of a total rebuild.

Frankly, I am happy we spent the cap this year (potentially) on locking up Conner, Budda, and Kyzir. That give us flexibility moving forward.

Year 3 - they will spend the money. The problem might be that 2025 looks weak as far as impact players that the Cardinals need (DE, DT, LB).

 

[Chopper0080]

We're paying $18m per year to a safety that has a 110 career passer rating allowed, allows 73% of passes where he is the cover man to be caught and has 7 career interceptions in 8 seasons, because he's a great tackler and has leadership qualities. Both things that are not hard to find in the NFL.

What is hard to find is safeties that can cover and are a threat to the ball. Those are the safeties that get paid.

The top 5 highest paid safeties outside Budda,

Jessie Bates - 84 passer rating allowed, 63% comp rate, 23 career interceptions in 7 seasons.
Xavier McKinney - 69 passer rating allowed, 67% comp rate, 16 career interceptions in 5 seasons
Minkah Fitzpatrick - 81 passer rating, 62% comp rate, 19 career interceptions in 9 seasons
Derwin James - 81 passer rating, 66% comp rate, 9 career interceptions 5.5 seasons
Antoine Winfield - 116 passer rating, 71% comp rate, 7 interceptions in 5 seasons

I just discovered Winfield is also massively overpaid, but him aside you can see the trend. Ballhawk safeties get paid.

You know who the next leading tackler is behind Budda at safety? Nick Cross from Indy. Someone I'm sure you never heard of. He has 7 less tackles, but more importantly has 3 more interceptions, because he has 3.

I love Budda, he's a great downhill player, one of the best in the league. That's just not worth close to $18m per year.

At 18 mil, Budda will 100% be paid more than his productivity.

On a 3 year deal, with where the Cardinals roster is at, it won't really matter.

 

[Chopper0080]

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Yeah...this is a team friendly contract. @BritCard

The reporting lies a little bit on this deal. Monti did well.

 

[Stout]

I tend to think its part of the plan...we are in year 2 of a total rebuild.

Frankly, I am happy we spent the cap this year (potentially) on locking up Conner, Budda, and Kyzir. That give us flexibility moving forward.

Year 3 - they will spend the money. The problem might be that 2025 looks weak as far as impact players that the Cardinals need (DE, DT, LB).

I am happy with those extensions too. Year 3 I have zero faith we will "spend the money" and you hit the nail on the head with the FA class.

 

[kerouac9]

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Yeah...this is a team friendly contract. @BritCard

The reporting lies a little bit on this deal. Monti did well.

The cap numbers in '26 and '27 look a little deranged, but we have a ton of cap space and no one else to re-sign besides McBride before then, anyway.

The bar is pretty low for "did well" when it's "gave an aging play more money than anyone else would have paid him on the open market," but good for Budda.

White is the next priority. It'll be interesting to see if they can get something done before the season ends.

 

[Chopper0080]

I tend to think its part of the plan...we are in year 2 of a total rebuild.

Frankly, I am happy we spent the cap this year (potentially) on locking up Conner, Budda, and Kyzir. That give us flexibility moving forward.

Year 3 - they will spend the money. The problem might be that 2025 looks weak as far as impact players that the Cardinals need (DE, DT, LB).

I think people will need to curb their expectations unless something changes. There isn't much to spend significant money on.

 

[Chopper0080]

The cap numbers in '26 and '27 look a little deranged, but we have a ton of cap space and no one else to re-sign besides McBride before then, anyway.

The bar is pretty low for "did well" when it's "gave an aging play more money than anyone else would have paid him on the open market," but good for Budda.

White is the next priority. It'll be interesting to see if they can get something done before the season ends.

There is very little real money in those years. Eating 6 mil to gain 13 in 2026 is a nice trade off. Same with 2027 eating 3 to gain 17. There is a little adjustment as Budda gets 7 mil guaranteed to 2026 if on the roster 5th day of 2025, but nothing like that for 2027.

 

[Krangodnzr]

I think people will need to curb their expectations unless something changes. There isn't much to spend significant money on.

While the market doesn't great right now, it always gets better with releases.

 

[Chopper0080]

Basically it is a two year extension with an oddly large cap hit in 2026.

 

[kerouac9]

There is very little real money in those years. Eating 6 mil to gain 13 in 2026 is a nice trade off. Same with 2027 eating 3 to gain 17. There is a little adjustment as Budda gets 7 mil guaranteed to 2026 if on the roster 5th day of 2025, but nothing like that for 2027.

So your expectation is that Budda only plays two years of this extension, and they're likely to restructure in 2026 to push some money into 2027 (when he'll be released)?

Maybe. The flexibility is great, but this is such a short-term deal in reality, and I'm assuming that Baker is a favorite of Michael Bidwill, that I wouldn't be surprised if Budda plays it out.

 

[Chopper0080]

So your expectation is that Budda only plays two years of this extension, and they're likely to restructure in 2026 to push some money into 2027 (when he'll be released)?

Maybe. The flexibility is great, but this is such a short-term deal in reality, and I'm assuming that Baker is a favorite of Michael Bidwill, that I wouldn't be surprised if Budda plays it out.

My expectation is that Budda plays 2 years, and then is either released or renegotiated after 2026. They won't pay him 20.8 mil in 2027. An easy out.

Also, if you believe in staggering positional contracts. 2027 is DTDs last year on his rookie deal. Very premature, but the structure is in place to extend him if he hits without paying big money to two Ss.

 

[TheCardFan]

The cap numbers in '26 and '27 look a little deranged, but we have a ton of cap space and no one else to re-sign besides McBride before then, anyway.

White is the next priority. It'll be interesting to see if they can get something done before the season ends.

Cap Number in 2026 and 2027 is basically what it was in 2024 before the extension.

Kyzir would be my pick for next priority.

 

[Chopper0080]

Cap Number in 2026 and 2027 is basically what it was in 2024 before the extension.

Kyzir would be my pick for next priority.

Yeah, he probably is.

Kyzir White
Roy Lopez
Baron Browning
LJ Collier Scratch Collier. They will let him be a FA.
Evan Brown

not sure that is the exact order of importance but those are the players who had big roles in 2024. One thing to consider is if the Cardinals will be active in FA, extensions for these players is more important because you likely will not get comp picks back.

 

[Chopper0080]

Also, with Jones and Pascal being FAs, and Dortch being a restricted FA, I am guessing we will see some change to the WR room.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Being our best player is relative, you can be both our best player and well overpaid.

Sure.

 

[BritCard]

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Yeah...this is a team friendly contract. @BritCard

The reporting lies a little bit on this deal. Monti did well.

Not really. It's taking $8m out of this year's vap that was due to roll over to save $8m on next year's, but it's the same either way.