Cardinals' Budda Baker trade request signals plenty of trouble on horizon

There aren’t too many ways to view the reports that Budda Baker wants a trade: It’s either bad news or horrible news for Arizona Cardinals fans.

Baker is the rarest of rarities in the NFL. He’s honest, earnest and fun to be around. He’s small, even by everyday standards. If he worked in your office, he’d just be the in-shape guy mixing protein shakes in the breakroom sink. He’s a totally normal-looking human in a sea of world-class strongmen and giants.

He commands respect by embodying values that players are taught in the pee-wee ranks: Fly to the ball, never quit, know when to play through pain and always — always — do your job. Plus, he’s vocal. Baker is the kind of guy who can scream at a room full of alphas, demanding and receiving their respect. And somehow, he does this all without compromising his status as “one of the guys.”

If this guy wants out, there’s a huge, huge problem.

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Budda Baker is the rarest of rarities in Arizona. He’s a guy they drafted and allowed a year to understudy with one of the consummate pros of his generation, Antoine Bethea. Baker learned how to show up on time, focus on his long-term goals and be a good teammate. Bethea taught Baker how to walk and talk like a pro.

Baker was younger, faster and more talented than Bethea, but Baker couldn’t crack the lineup as a rookie. So how did he handle it? He went out and became an All-Pro on special teams. (Where y’all at, Isaiah Simmons and Zaven Collins?)

He earned his spot. No one gave him anything. Now, he’s an All-Pro safety who came back from a wicked concussion and is rehabbing his way through a broken shoulder — that he played on in a meaningless game after he hurt it.

If this guy wants out, it would create a leadership vacuum that no one on the roster is ready to fill.

Budda Baker is the rarest of rarities in pro sports. He’s giving the team an out in saying, according to reporting from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, that he would stay if the Cardinals would give him a raise.

He deserves that raise as much as anyone in the league, in part because he would be as valuable anywhere as he is here. But also, the Cardinals need him more than any other team could.

New General Manager Monti Ossenfort would do well to find the money because Baker’s play and presence don’t come around every day. Ossenfort should consider that the Cardinals have a legacy of stalwart safeties going back to the black-and-white days of Larry Wilson through the eras of Cecil Cooper, Aeneas Williams and Adrian Wilson. Baker lives up to the standard.

Ossenfort is going to have inexperienced people in the front office, on the sidelines and in the locker room. This kind of mix can turn toxic and bubble into a losing culture in a hurry. Once you get that kind of mess on the floor, it’s hard to clean up. Baker can help prevent that by being an alkaline base in a cauldron of acid.

Ossenfort has the leverage here. Baker is under contract for the upcoming season and the year after.

But Baker is the kind of guy that general managers should do right by.

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When Baker signed his current contract in 2020, the Cardinals looked like a winner, preparing to take off. Today? The franchise is rebuilding its football operation from the top down. Who could blame him for wanting to leave to play for a winner? By requesting a trade this offseason, he gives the club as much value as they’ll ever get for him. And in making the request before the draft (back in February, according the ESPN report late Friday), he gives the Cardinals a maximum amount of leverage in trade talks.

It’s a very classy way to handle things. Baker is even thinking about the team as he seeks to exit.

It’s a bad sign for fans, though.

Sometimes, players just know. He sees what’s going on, and he’s willing to stay and help fix it, but with the way Baker plays, there’s no guarantee (or guaranteed money) that says he’ll make it to his next contract in one piece. If he’s gonna stick around through this for another two years, he deserves a raise.

But if a guy like Budda Baker wants out, there aren’t too many ways to see it: It’s either bad news or horrible news for Cardinals fans; it signals a lot of losing ahead.

Reach Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @SayingMoore.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Cardinals' new GM Monti Ossenfort should do right by Budda Baker