Inside The Huskies

Budda Baker: From UW's DBU to Year After Year Pro Bowler

The former Husky safety has had a very productive and rewarding nine NFL seasons.
Dan Raley|
Former Husky Budda Baker greets Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford after their recent game.
Former Husky Budda Baker greets Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford after their recent game. | Rob Schumacher/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Budda Baker is like that high-mileage car you just don't want to part with.

After 39 games for the University of Washington and another 137 for the Arizona Cardinals, the strong safety shows no signs of remotely slowing down and this week earned his seventh Pro Bowl selection.

It's been nearly a decade since he became the ripple in a very one-sided Oregon-Washington football rivalry, by flipping at the last minute from the Ducks to signing with his hometown Huskies.

Baker was one of those responsible for leading Chris Petersen-coached UW into the College Football Playoff for the first time in 2016 against Alabama in the Peach Bowl.

Huskies defensive back Budda Baker (32) warms up before a game against Arizona in Tucson in 2016.
Huskies defensive back Budda Baker (32) warms up before a game against Arizona in Tucson in 2016. | Casey Sapio-Imagn Images

He's also one of the poster boys for the UW continually trumpeting itself as DBU to the next generations of players coming through.

A second-round draft pick and the 36th player taken overall in the 2017 draft for the Cardinals, the 5-foot-10, 195-pound Baker next made himself the highest-paid safety in the history of the NFL when he signed a 4-four, $59 million deal in 2020.

Four years later, Baker signed a 3-year, $54 million deal that continues to make him a very comfortable person financially.

Coming off last weekend, Baker could hold up 1,012 career NFL tackles, 10 sacks, 39 pass break-ups and 8 interceptions.

The only thing that's taken some of the luster off his personal achievements has been the failure of the Cardinals as a team to get things done. They sit at a miserable 3-12 with two games to go with no hope of sharing in the postseason.

Baker simply continues on as this hard-hitting, extra-reliable player who hasn't tried to remake his image or demand a change of venue for an employer.

His alterations have been subtle as he moved from free safety to strong safety early in his NFL career and changed his jersey number from 32 to 3.

If he could alter anything, Baker probably would make himself slightly faster in getting down the field.

He's still had to live down his 90-yard interception in which he failed to score against his hometown Seahawks because wide receiver DK Metcalf ran him down from behind after giving him a huge head start.

Since Baker entered the NFL, the UW has gone through four head coaches and been to a second CFP appearance. While he's played in the desert all that time, the the Huskieswent down there and hired their current coach, pulling Jedd Fisch out of Tucson.

Baker, not unlike the classic Studebacker car, just keeps chugging along, making plays and earning Pro Bowl rewards.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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