Report: Budda Baker requests trade from crumbling Cardinals

One of the top safeties in the NFL reportedly wants out of Arizona.

It looks like the Twitter sleuths were onto something with Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker.

The former Washington Huskies star and three-time All-Pro selection removed “AZ” from his Twitter bio on Thursday, raising questions about whether he was disgruntled. On Friday, it was reported that yes, Baker wants out of Arizona.

Baker has a couple of years left on his contract, which without restructuring would total just over $27 million.

Arizona is a thoroughly dysfunctional franchise right now, with ownership under fire and the roster in tatters just two seasons after reaching the playoffs. Now they have a new head coach, a new general manager, a quarterback who is recovering from an ACL tear, and now one of the best defensive players in the NFL has apparently had enough and sees his future elsewhere.

Of course, the Cardinals don’t have to trade Baker, but they’ve also got the third overall pick they’re thinking about trading in this month’s NFL Draft, so either these are two separate issues or they could combine into one big discussion in the coming weeks.

I need a closing paragraph so I guess this is the part where we mindlessly speculate if Budda wants to come home and be a Seahawk, as unfeasible as that is given his contract and the safeties on Seattle’s roster. I’m sure DK Metcalf can track him down if he wants to do some recruiting.