Eagles Showing Interest in Budda Baker to Bolster Secondary
Sources are buzzing that the Philadelphia Eagles could be making a big splash to fortify their secondary—by pursuing elite Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker in a potential trade.
Former Vikings GM Jeff Diamond recently suggested that the Eagles are ideally positioned to pull off a Baker deal, citing their available cap space and draft capital. According to Diamond, Philadelphia could realistically offer a second-round pick to bring the 6-time Pro Bowler to town athlonsports.com.Budda Baker is no ordinary safety. A formidable presence in the backfield, he’s earned six Pro Bowl nods and multiple All-Pro honors—a consistently top-tier performer who leads by example and brings physicality and versatility to any defense Wikipedia. Baker has also reportedly expressed admiration for Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, only adding fuel to speculation SI.While the match makes sense from both reputation and need—Philadelphia has lost key pieces in the secondary like C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Marcus Epps and hasn’t fully replaced that firepower—several hurdles remain
Cap-wise, adding Baker’s salary could be possible since he makes roughly $13M per season, but a contract extension may still be a requirement SI. There's also debate over whether Arizona would be willing to move him after reworking his deal earlier this year SI.
Bears counting on Ben Johnson's inside knowledge of Lions as aid
It sounds like a nightmare for a defensive team with soft tissue injuries, and can be.
If anyone knows the greatest dangers the Detroit Lions offense poses it's Bears coach Ben Johnson. He might be the best scouting source the
Running back Jahmyr Gibbs, in particular, is a problem, but there are others besides the Lions' breakaway back to threaten a defense that now has T.J. Edwards and Jaylon Johnson back from soft tissue hiatus.
"They have a couple players on that offense that are elite in this league in terms of start, stop, acceleration," Johnson said. "Until you're out there for the first time, you’ve got to see it on tape, but we've been talking about it all week.“
Gibbs was held to 19 yards on nine attempts by the Packers defense last week, but the Packers defense is showing early they are capable of such things.
Dennis Allen's Bears defense showed it could do that type of thing in the first half against Minnesota but then caved in against the run. Making a mistake against a Gibbs run can mean a touchdown and not a first down.
“Speed, elite speed. Probably the fastest in the NFL at his position, or top three for sure," Johnson said. "He's got a chip on his shoulder. He's got that dog mentality at that position. For a guy that’s not overly big, he is extremely physical. He is a willing blocker.
"I think there's a perception that he is just a outside the tackles or space player, yet he can run duo as well as anybody. That's what's really dangerous about him. He's not afraid to hit it in between the tackles and yet if you give him a little cavity to the outside, he'll bounce it and make it a big play. We've got to do a great job knowing where he is. They've made an emphasis on trying to get him the ball in space and we're going to have to play phenomenal defense in terms of being sound with our execution of the call, but also we have to be able to rally to the football. I think that's what stood out on that Green Bay tape was how that defense just swarmed to the football every single play.”
Former Bears running back David Montgomery has been the ideal complementary back and it was a power back who gave Allen's defense fits last week. Jordan Mason's running helped turn around the Vikings offense in the early fourth quarter.
"He wants to lower his shoulder, wants to be the spark, very dependable player," Johnson said of Montgomery. "Can't say enough good things. When you’ve got two backs like that, they're complimentary of each other, they want each other to do well. It makes it really hard because there's always a threat on the field regardless.
"They're dabbling around with having them both on the field a0t the same time which makes it even more challenging."
The speed with receivers Jameson Williams and Amon-Ra St. Brown gives the defense another worry.
"We're going to have to bottle these guys up as best as we can," Johnson said. "We know this is going to be a very physical football game up front and with our perimeter players as well, and that's just how we like it.”
How they like it didn't turn out well Monday night, and now they're in a situation where they need to avoid 0-2 because only two teams in five years that were 0-2 managed to get to the playoffs. Johnson didn't want to hear about this stat.
“You're crazy right now," Johnson said when told this. "We're going (there) to win this game."
