LESSONS TO LEARN
Cardinals were active traders on Day 2 of the NFL draft
After standing pat in the first round on Thursday, the Cardinals hit the trade market in the second and third rounds on Friday, moving up and then down, and getting the two players they wanted. That’s their story, and they’ll stick to it. The Cardinals started the second round of the draft with a bold move, trading up nine spots with the Bears and selecting safety Budda Baker out of Washington.
The Cardinals traded their fourth- and sixth-round picks this year and a fourth next year, getting Baker and a seventh-round pick in this year’s draft in return.
General Manager Steve Keim compared Baker to Cardinals safety Tyrann Mathieu, but Baker is about an inch taller, 5-feet-10-inches, and heavier, 192 pounds.
“He’s an active football player, loves the game and is as violent as can be,” Keim said.
Baker is another of what the Cardinals call a “hybrid” player. He is listed as a safety, but he likely will be asked to play some cornerback in nickel and dime
situations.
In the third round, the Cardinals traded down 21 spots, from 77th to 98th overall, receiving the 115th pick overall from the Panthers.
With that late third-round pick, the Cardinals selected receiver Chad Williams from Grambling State.
Williams, 6-feet-1-inch and 204 pounds, caught 90 passes for 1,337 yards and 11 touchdowns last season.
“We still got the guy we were interested in,” Keim said of the trade. “A guy a lot of people don’t know about him. Probably wouldn’t be an Arizona Cardinal draft if we didn’t take a smallschool guy, particularly in the third round.”
The Cardinals have had success in the third round, taking Mathieu from LSU, receiver John Brown from Pittsburg State and running back David Johnson from Northern Iowa.
The Cardinals wanted to add a big, strong receiver while sacrificing as little speed as possible, coach Bruce Arians said.
“My favorite round in the draft is three,” Arians said. “This is a bigger, more physical, fast receiver.”
Arians’ teams have had success drafting receivers in the third round, including Brown in Arizona, T.Y. Hilton in Indianapolis and Mike Wallace and Emmanuel Sanders in Pittsburgh.
Before last season, Williams was charged with marijuana possession and possession of firearms while on the LSU campus.
The charges were dropped, Keim said, and Williams served a one-game suspension.
“Wrong place, wrong time,” Keim said. “He’s a good kid.”
Williams runs the 40-yard dash in 4.42 seconds but was not invited to the NFL scouting combine.
The Cardinals are looking for depth at the position. They cut Michael Floyd in December, and Larry Fitzgerald could retire after this season.
“I know for a fact I can live up to that third-round hype these guys have going,” Williams said.
Baker fills a need for the Cardinals, who lost safeties Tony Jefferson and D.J. Swearinger in free agency. The Cardinals often use three or four safeties in some of their substitution packages. Baker didn’t know that but liked it. “That’s a great thing for me,” he said.
Baker’s given name is Bishard, but when he was a baby, his mother thought he looked like Buddha. Thus the nickname, minus the “H.”
Keim and Arians called Baker and Williams “alpha males,” meaning players who love football and are physical.
In a video posted on the team’s website, Cardinals’ executives fist bumped and high-fived each other after the trade was done. In a phone call to Baker, Arians said, “we’ve got the most dynamic secondary in the league now.”
Arians didn’t back away from the comment in a press conference Friday evening and said there are cornerbacks remaining in the draft who could add to the dynamic.
Baker said he’s been a fan of Mathieu and cornerback Patrick Peterson.
Mathieu liked the pick. “Young savage,” he tweeted soon after the selection.
“I feel like I can bring versatility,” Baker said. “I feel like I can play free safety, strong safety, corner, nickel. I showed a lot of stuff on film. I’m able to read the quarterback, make open field tackles. All that kind of stuff. I feel like you guys are getting a great athlete.”
The trade leaves the Cardinals with a fourth-round pick, two fifth-rounders and two seventh-rounders Saturday, the final day of the draft.