Arizona Cardinals draft pick Budda Baker has a motor that won’t stop

Go ahead, try to knock that chip off his shoulder. Budda Baker dares you. Go ahead, call him smallish and too undersized to make it in the NFL. Baker can’t wait to prove you wrong.

He usually gets the last word, anyway, which is one of the reasons why the Cardinals traded their fourth- and sixth-round picks to the Bears on Friday night to move up nine spots in the second round of the NFL draft to grab the Washington safety, plus Chicago’s seventh-round pick.

Despite his size – 5-foot-10, 192 pounds – the Cardinals are convinced they just found themselves another ball-hawking, playmaking defensive back in the mold of the Honey Badger, Tyrann Mathieu. And that can’t be a bad thing at all.

“It means a lot to me just because you don’t see that a lot and it showed how much interest that they had in me to move all the way up from the 45th pick to the 36th pick,” Baker said on a conference call.

When the selection was made and coach Bruce Arians called Baker with the news, he told the prospect, “We’ve got the most dynamic secondary in the league now!”

A four-star recruit out of Bellevue, Wash., Baker was always told he was too small to be dynamic. It’s a perception he’s had to battle his whole life, but when he hears all the talk, he said he simply has to think of his mother, Michelle, and it makes him turn into a warrior.

Or as Mathieu already tweeted out, “Young savage.”

Baker’s mom is a cancer survivor and has been dealing with multiple physical challenges, including Crohn’s disease and diabetes.

“For me, I just always feel like the smaller guy people don’t really talk about or certain things like that,” Baker said. “Also, I try to think about my mother battling certain illnesses … and I just feel the anger within her. I always hear people talking about how it’s hard running these gassers and then I think about my mom and how she has doctor’s appointments every day, getting stuck with IV’s, taking certain pills every day.

“When people say that, it just makes me mad because I feel like all that stuff is easy but when you’re in the hospital constantly, that’s hard.”

So Mom is the motivation?

“Of course,” he said. “She’s the rock in the family, the foundation. She’s what makes everything tick.”

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On the football field, Baker is what makes everything “tock.” He can play anywhere in the secondary and is the sort of “hybrid” type player the Cardinals absolutely love. They will often utilize up to seven defensive backs in certain passing situations and move their safeties and corners all over the place to not only cover target areas, but to disrupt passing routes and confuse opposing quarterbacks.

“That’s a great thing for me,” Baker said.

Instead of celebrating with his mother, Baker said he planned to spend the rest of Friday night studying film of the Cardinals’ defense with his former position coach in college, Jimmy Lake. Talk about dedication from a 21-year-old.

That’s Baker, though. He started all 14 games he played for the Huskies as a true freshman back in 2014, finishing with 80 tackles, and he ended his collegiate career as a consensus All-American.

“That’s the type of kid he is,” Arians said, when told Baker planned to watch film of the Cardinals all night. “Betch (defensive coordinator James Bettcher) and (defensive backs coach) Nick (Rapone) could hardly get him off the phone; he was wanting to know the whole playbook.”

Arians also recalled a story about Baker and a bunch of his teammates having a foot race to the top of the Space Needle in Seattle.

“He was the first one up there,” the coach said, “and he was barking at everybody as they’re coming up the steps.”

In an effort to further improve his draft stock and continue his development, Baker worked out in the offseason with former longtime NFL cornerback Ronde Barber and Earl Thomas, the safety for the Seahawks.

“I learned a lot,” he said. “Both guys talked about our size because we have similar body styles, but Ronde more. He taught me how to watch film a lot, constantly watch film and study your opponent. Earl Thomas also taught me about breaking – certain breaks take my eyes to the receiver first, then the target first and then the ball. Certain little things that will help me better for this league.”

If he can resemble the player that Mathieu has become, Baker will be off to one hell of a start. Like his new bosses, Keim and Arians, Baker believes he and the Badger have similar styles to their game. Baker’s about an inch taller and about 15 pounds heavier, but they wear the same jersey number – 32 – and play with the same passion

“I feel like we do, yeah,” Baker said. “We also have the same type of body type. Of course, I will also say that we are different, but we share the same traits.”

Earlier in the day, Mathieu sent out a tweet that read, “Some real 1st rounders will be drafted today.” Baker retweeted it and said those words will stick with him for a long time.

“It was crazy,” Baker said. “I thought about that when they called me. That was just crazy because I follow Tyrann on my feed because, like I said, I was a fan of him, still am. I saw that, so I had to retweet it because that’s how I felt. It was cool.”

Reach McManaman at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @azbobbymac and listen to him live every Wednesday night between 7-9 on Fox Sports 910-AM on The Freaks with Kenny and Crash.