Week 4 of the Arizona Cardinals off season. 1/29/24-2/4/24

[PJ1]

The tallest midget!

Skinniest kid at fat camp.

 

[BritCard]

Your entire point last offseason was that players didn't want to sign in Arizona BECAUSE KYLER WAS INJURED so how could Monti be blamed for not signing more expensive FAs.

Let me fix that for you, seeing as you completely misrepresented what I actually said.

 

[kerouac9]

k9 resents your short jokes!

Hey. As a 5'11 6/8" person I am told that statistically I am of above-average height!

 

[Mulli]

Hey. As a 5'11 6/8" person I am told that statistically I am of above-average height!

Haha, I made it up. Feel free to

 

[BritCard]

K9 did a good job explaining it. Budda is playing deep S to cover for all of the inexperience at CB. He can't do it all, and is being put in situations to fail constantly, but he still is consistent. He blitzed at a career low number 14, for the season...and he still had 5 TFLs. His missed tackle % was a career low 6.5%...PFR has him missing 6 tackles. His completion % allowed was a career low of 63.3%. He had his second best season in YAC allowed...he allowed 98 total yards after catch on the season.

Yes, Budda has not been a playmaker like you would want to see from a high paid defensive player. Yes, he does not play a high priority position. Yes, he is overpaid. All of that said, none of that makes him "not good" especially because people don't like or understand his role on a horrible defense.

Like I said in my original post, the Cardinals are fine letting Baker play out his contract unless they find themselves in the unlikely position where they actually need the money they would save by cutting him for an actually above league average player. But, in order to get to that point, they have to spend 42 mil. Once they blow through that we can chat.

I mean, this just says he's not been good, isn't a high priority position, and is overpaid, but with more words.

His starting outside corners last time he was legit good were rookie Marco Wilson and Byron Murphy starting outside for the 1st time. Murphy gave up 731 yards, a 65% comp rate, 87.8 PR and 5 TDs. Wilson gave up 70% completion rate, 6 TDs, 121 PR and 588 yards.

The last time he was good he also had ass at CB. He had the same duo in 2022 and wasn't as good.

And in his 1st team All Pro year he had Dre Kirkpatrick and the corpse of P2 in his last year. It was, according to PFF the worse year of his career.

He's always had ass at CB.

 

[BritCard]

Budda Baker, despite injuries, was no worse than the third-best player on this defense. He's part of the solution.

That's me convinced. Our $19m safety was as good as our 3rd best guy on close to vet min on an ass defense.

 

[unseenaz]

Odegard is great, here's his recent Cards Q&A.

https://www.bettingodds.com/us/news/ask-odegard-should-the-cardinals-trade-budda-baker

Found this tidbit intereseting.

“We need to cut Hump to free up cap space thoughts?” – WILSHIRE
KO: I wrote about this at the time of his ACL tear, and yes, I believe it is exceedingly likely he is released this offseason. It doesn’t make any sense to keep Humphries on that contract knowing he will miss a big chunk of next season.

 

[BritCard]

Let me fix that for you, seeing as you completely misrepresented what I actually said.

@kerouac9 seems to disagree with what I said so just let me correct him.

But what do you want them to do when your starting QB is badly injured? We all already said we know the Cards aren't going to do anything next season. At best if we threw everything into next year and Kyler came back by game 6 we would have a 10% chance of making the playoffs. And they haven't shot our load trying to compete next year we don't have the resources to compete in 2024 either.

So knowing they cannot compete next year they are trying to conserve the limited resources at their disposal and gain additional resources via trades and comp picks to compete in 2024. I expect they will either restructure Kyler to bring more money forward into this year or try to conserve as much cap as possible to roll over into 2024.

It's much more simple.

Our highly paid starting QB is injured. The team don't expect him back early. Players on the team like Allen and Murphy don't expect him back early. Good FA's with multiple options know it's going to be a rough year. Everyone knows next season is a lost cause already. Team building is being done appropriate to that.

Even if Kyler is medically cleared by week 1 they aren't going to rush him back because he relies on his mobility so much. They are going to baby step him back because of the money they have on the line.

Good players care about winning. Next year has been a 100% losing season since the moment Kyler was injured. Nobody here picked the Cards to have a winning season in the predictions thread.

Even after that this roster is in a multi year rebuild. Why would any player choose that over any other team in the league?

Answer this. What team has a worse situation than the Cards?

 

[Mulli]

Odegard is great, here's his recent Cards Q&A.

https://www.bettingodds.com/us/news/ask-odegard-should-the-cardinals-trade-budda-baker

Found this tidbit intereseting.

“We need to cut Hump to free up cap space thoughts?” – WILSHIRE
KO: I wrote about this at the time of his ACL tear, and yes, I believe it is exceedingly likely he is released this offseason. It doesn’t make any sense to keep Humphries on that contract knowing he will miss a big chunk of next season.

 

[BritCard]

“We need to cut Hump to free up cap space thoughts?” – WILSHIRE
KO: I wrote about this at the time of his ACL tear, and yes, I believe it is exceedingly likely he is released this offseason. It doesn’t make any sense to keep Humphries on that contract knowing he will miss a big chunk of next season.

Yes, every team in the league would cut him. He's not seeing the field next year and gains us $9m cap this year and $16m the year after.

I like Hump as a person but from a roster building perspective I'll be disappointed in the FO if he isn't cut.

 

[kerouac9]

That's me convinced. Our $19m safety was as good as our 3rd best guy on close to vet min on an ass defense.

Every part of this is fake news. The three best players on the defense last year were, in some order, Kyzir White, Jalen Thompson, and Budda Baker. There's no argument for anyone else.

White is on a $10 million contract. Thompson is on a $38.6 million contract.

There's no argument to be made that this defense would be better in 2024 without Budda Baker than with it.

 

[Mulli]

Every part of this is fake news. The three best players on the defense last year were, in some order, Kyzir White, Jalen Thompson, and Budda Baker. There's no argument for anyone else.

White is on a $10 million contract. Thompson is on a $38.6 million contract.

There's no argument to be made that this defense would be better in 2024 without Budda Baker than with it.

My whole life I wish this team would stop overpaying safeties. Cripes!

 

[Mulli]

My whole life I wish this team would stop overpaying safeties. Cripes!

And the one safety they didn't overpay, Timm McDonald, was an all-time great and went on to win a Super Bowl. Jerks!

 

[kerouac9]

My whole life I wish this team would stop overpaying safeties. Cripes!

Yeah. I try to imagine all of the facets of why Steve Keim thought it was a great idea to dedicate $30 million+ a year to the safety position, and I can't really think of good ones.

It's easy for fans to see Jalen Thompson playing well and say "We gotta keep that guy in-house!" The next step doesn't have to be "Let's make him the 12th-highest paid safety in the league."

You can kind of see Keim's wheels spinning with being able to easy Budda out and lift Jalen up. It's similar to how I think Keim expected DHop to fade away while Hollywood Brown's star was on the rise. But to act like that was always going to happen has really been A Problem.

 

[Mulli]

Yeah. I try to imagine all of the facets of why Steve Keim thought it was a great idea to dedicate $30 million+ a year to the safety position, and I can't really think of good ones.

It's easy for fans to see Jalen Thompson playing well and say "We gotta keep that guy in-house!" The next step doesn't have to be "Let's make him the 12th-highest paid safety in the league."

You can kind of see Keim's wheels spinning with being able to easy Budda out and lift Jalen up. It's similar to how I think Keim expected DHop to fade away while Hollywood Brown's star was on the rise. But to act like that was always going to happen has really been A Problem.

Can someone explain to me how it is easy to see Jalen Thompson playing well? Do we blame the corners again? Somehow, Budda and Jalen are amazeballs, but Cards win one game a year in the division for the past 7 years.

 

[RON_IN_OC]

Hey. As a 5'11 6/8" person I am told that statistically I am of above-average height!

Does 6/8 make you taller than 3/4? lol

 

[ASUCHRIS]

Does 6/8 make you taller than 3/4? lol

6 and 8 are bigger than 3 and 4…duh!

 

[kerouac9]

Can someone explain to me how it is easy to see Jalen Thompson playing well? Do we blame the corners again? Somehow, Budda and Jalen are amazeballs, but Cards win one game a year in the division for the past 7 years.

In 2021 he had 3 INTs and 2 QB knockdowns while playing 91% of the defensive snaps. That defense was eleventh in scoring and 10th in passing yardage.

Keim was looking for draft successes to retain since it'd been a minute.

Does 6/8 make you taller than 3/4? lol

It's DRAFT SEASON. IIRC that's how they do heights.

 

[Chopper0080]

I mean, this just says he's not been good, isn't a high priority position, and is overpaid, but with more words.

His starting outside corners last time he was legit good were rookie Marco Wilson and Byron Murphy starting outside for the 1st time. Murphy gave up 731 yards, a 65% comp rate, 87.8 PR and 5 TDs. Wilson gave up 70% completion rate, 6 TDs, 121 PR and 588 yards.

The last time he was good he also had ass at CB. He had the same duo in 2022 and wasn't as good.

And in his 1st team All Pro year he had Dre Kirkpatrick and the corpse of P2 in his last year. It was, according to PFF the worse year of his career.

He's always had ass at CB.

It makes sense that you would read my post and take away that Budda isn't good. The false equivalencies you make are staggering. Over paid does not mean a player isn't "good". Playing a position that is not a high priority does not mean a player isn't "good". Not creating turnovers doesn't equate to a player being "not good". Keep sticking your head in the sand.

 

[Shane]

Tell them you moved away. The sales pressure stopped immediately when I told them I moved away in 2005.

Hasn’t stopped them with me after I cancelled my tickets and told them I live out of state and no longer Interested…. Been 2.5 years of constant hounding

 

[Mulli]

Hasn’t stopped them with me after I cancelled my tickets and told them I live out of state and no longer Interested…. Been 2.5 years of constant hounding

Those dopes were fired. Mine was a new, better salesperson. But if you DO want to renew, she asked me to refer you to her so I gave her your name.

 

[BritCard]

Every part of this is fake news. The three best players on the defense last year were, in some order, Kyzir White, Jalen Thompson, and Budda Baker. There's no argument for anyone else.

White is on a $10 million contract. Thompson is on a $38.6 million contract.

There's no argument to be made that this defense would be better in 2024 without Budda Baker than with it.

Of course there is. You take the $15m cap savings from Budda, use some of it on another safety that has poor ball skills and whose splash plays are rarer than hens teeth and put the rest towards a vet DE like Brian Burns.

Geno Stone for example has a market value of $7m according to Spotrac although he has 7 INT's this year...but pick your poison.

 

[BritCard]

It makes sense that you would read my post and take away that Budda isn't good. The false equivalencies you make are staggering. Over paid does not mean a player isn't "good". Playing a position that is not a high priority does not mean a player isn't "good". Not creating turnovers doesn't equate to a player being "not good". Keep sticking your head in the sand.

Good job I didn't say he isn't good then and said "he's not been good". Which is not the same thing.

He's always been talented, if overrated, he's never been anywhere near as good as Minkah for example. He's just not played well, or at least close to what we are paying him, since 2021.

There are lots of things to like about Budda. His contract vs his performance on the field is not one of them. There are very few free safeties in the league that QB's are less worried about. Running backs probably have nightmares about him and I wish dearly he was back in the box because he's not even a top half of the league free safety.

He's overpaid, the starting safety room is overpaid and he only has a year left. Something has to give. If that's a much cheaper extension then fine, but in my opinion he can't stay on that money.

 

[BritCard]

Can someone explain to me how it is easy to see Jalen Thompson playing well? Do we blame the corners again? Somehow, Budda and Jalen are amazeballs, but Cards win one game a year in the division for the past 7 years.

Jalen is also an overpaid, very average safety.

 

[kerouac9]

Of course there is. You take the $15m cap savings from Budda, use some of it on another safety that has poor ball skills and whose splash plays are rarer than hens teeth and put the rest towards a vet DE like Brian Burns.

Geno Stone for example has a market value of $7m according to Spotrac although he has 7 INT's this year...but pick your poison.

If you want to spin fantasies, why not trade the 27th overall pick for Aaron Donald and use the cap money on him? He's as likely to be available as Brian Burns.

Just remind me when context matters: It's extremely important when evaluating whether or not BJ Ojulari can win 1:1s, but it's not important when considering Geno Stone, who had one career interception and was a special teamer until this season, playing on one of the best defenses in the NFL.