Budda Baker – Safety – Washington State, PAC-12
DOB – Jan 10 1996
Height – 5’10”
Weight – 195 lbs
Click Here for NFL Combine Stats
Strengths:
It helps to have pedigree. Budda Baker has a long sheet and it’s impressive. High School 100 Meter Champion. Three time state football champion. Honorable mention All-PAC 12 as a true freshman with 80 tackles, INT and 6 pass breakups. First team all-conference honors in 2015 and 2016.
Aggressive, smooth, instinctive, passionate, hungry, excited, focused. These are the verbs one would reach for to describe Baker’s game. He is smooth, decisive and has a nose for the play. He quickly diagnoses flow and is able to weave through traffic to the point of attack. Tremendous ability to accelerate to the ball once the play is committed. Solid tackler and plus thumper when hitting. A football player.
Weaknesses:
Size. 195 soaking wet Baker will have to “man-up” at the next level. An aggressive player who enjoys contact his mind is writing checks his body may not be able to cash at the next level. Pass-catching TE’s are not in Baker’s wheel house as he just doesn’t have the size or body to deal with them.
Glyphy:
Baker’s ability to fight through trash and come up and make the tackle on the running back in open space shows his tackling ability
Pro Comparison:
I have to give NFL.com credit. They nailed it. Bob Sanders. Perfect clone.
Overall Review:
A physical player who enjoys delivering slobberknocker hits on unsuspecting WR’s like Bob Sanders before him you have to figure his career won’t be a long one. There are certain players whose style is not conducive to twenty year careers. Baker is one of them. However while on the field he is a passionate difference maker who impacts the outcome of the match on game day. In a scheme that lets Budda Baker play center field using his instincts and incredible speed to close down routes the team will be VERY happy they pulled the trigger on draft day. You can slide him up into the slot as a nickle back and not worry about it a bit. Just don’t ask him to carry Gronkowski up the seam and life will be good.
