The Jacksonville Jaguars are aggressively shopping for secondary help ahead of the deadline, and Arizona might be handing them the ultimate out.
According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the endless losing in the desert is finally weighing on Budda Baker, opening the door for Jacksonville to swoop in and pry the Pro Bowl safety out of Arizona.
Budda Baker Trade Pitch Sends Him to Jaguars
“Also on the Arizona front, safety Budda Baker remains on my radar, though he has been a Cardinals lifer and would be hard to trade. But my sense is the consistent losing has weighed on him, and teams such as Buffalo or Jacksonville could try to take advantage of that,” Fopwler writes.
This isn’t the first time that the Jags have been linked to Baker, either. Multiple trade pitches last week saw Baker potentially landing in Jacksonville.
The Florida Times-Union’s Ryan O’Halloran noted that Arizona and Jacksonville are moving in completely opposite directions. With the Cardinals locked in a deep rebuild and the Jaguars primed for a real playoff run, shipping Baker to Duval gives the 30-year-old Pro Bowler the ring-chasing scenario he actually deserves.
“Baker, 30, entered Week 8 with 145 games of regular-season experience (all with the Cardinals),” O’Halloran wrote. “With Arizona in a rebuild, he would likely welcome the opportunity to join a contender, like receiver Jakobi Meyers did last year when he was acquired from the Las Vegas Raiders.”
However, he also pointed out that James Gladstone will have to do a lot of cap space math to actually make the trade a reality.
“The Jaguars would have to get creative to fit the remaining $8.13 million under their cap, but this is where Gladstone’s experience with the Los Angeles Rams will come in handy,” added O’Halloran.
Jaguars Need to Figure Out Cap Space for Baker Trade
Baker has a 3-year, $54 million extension signed with Arizona that pays him $18 million per year, running through the 2027 season.
Since the Cardinals have already eaten his signing bonus and offseason bonus this season, the Jaguars could get an 8x Pro Bowler for just $7.3M in actual 2026 cash/cap hit, while Arizona swallows over $11.8M in dead money.
Plus, Baker is under contract for 2027 with a $16.075M base salary and a $17.83M cap hit. None of his 2027 salary is guaranteed, giving Jacksonville complete flexibility to either keep him as a starter, restructure his final year, or cut him with zero dead cap penalty.
Then they also have an option to slash that $7.3M 2026 bill even further to preserve deadline space. They could convert a chunk of his remaining base salary into a signing bonus, just like Arizona did for Baltimore in the Jacoby Brissett deal.
Baker seems like a perfect fit, if Galdstone can convince Monti Ossenfort in under a week.
On SI’s John Shipley agrees.
“Now that the Jaguars are without their most veteran and experienced safety, Baker would somehow make even more sense for the Jaguars now than he did this time a week ago,” Shipley wrote. “With the Jaguars badly needing somebody in the back end outside of Jourdan Lewis, who has simply seen and played a lot of football, few options make more sense than Baker.”
Jaguars Urged to Swing a Trade for Cardinals $16M Pro Bowl Starter