Arizona Cardinals need to strongly consider moving on from safety Budda Baker

One of the harsh realities within the NFL is that sometimes fans forget it's a business and the front office of each franchise is always looking to somehow improve. Whether it is to trade for a star, trade up in the draft, or even acquire future draft capital. The Arizona Cardinals have been acquiring draft picks for this upcoming NFL draft and are heading into free agency with $53 million to spend, per overthecap.com.

General manager Monti Ossenfort is expected to be busy next month as he looks to revamp this roster. There are many positions of need that the Cardinals need to improve in and Ossenfort has a tough challenge on himself, seeing as how the Cardinals are currently not one of the top contenders in the NFC, let along the NFL. However, let's not forget that Arizona was a playoff team just two seasons ago so they are not going into a complete rebuild.

One challenge that might be hard to think about for Cardinals fans is coming to the realization that safety Budda Baker may not be on the Cardinals much longer. The star safety has been with the organization since 2017, where he was drafted in the second round. In 7 seasons, Baker has been a key factor in this Arizona defense, racking up 100+ tackles in 4 of the 7 seasons and has been a two-time First-Team All Pro, as well as made the Pro Bowl every year aside from 2018.

He has been the heart and soul of the defense for the Cardinals, but his production took a bit of a drop this past season. Baker is heading into the final year of his contract with the team, and Ossenfort needs to strongly consider if Baker is going to be part of the near future in Arizona or not. If the Cardinals are looking to move off of Baker's contract a year early, they would be able to receive fair compensation from another team. At 28 years old, Baker is still in his prime and would be a valuable player on a team whose Super Bowl window is open.

While the Cardinals will then need to address the safety position, should they move off of Baker, they can address it in the draft and acquire someone young who can develop within Jonathan Gannon's defense in his first real chance at building success in Arizona.