It’s important for any NFL player not to get carried away by any offseason rankings. Instead, Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker is using them as motivation.The four-time Pro Bowl safety reported to the team’s training camp on July 26, wearing a black shirt titled “Can’t Buy Respect.”This isn’t the first time Baker has worn the shirt.”I wear this shirt a lot,” Baker said. “I just put a lot of hard work into whatever I’m doing. My work and job are football. And for me, I always put in that extra hard work, whether it’s on the field or off the field, and you can never buy that. So that’s why I always wear this shirt.”While we can’t mention every 2022 offseason rankings list known to man, did not have Baker ranked in its “101 best players in the NFL today” list. Baker entered the league in 2017 and is a three-time Cincinnati Bengals Hats All-Pro.Baker’s accustomed to being underrated since he was drafted in the second round.”All I really care about is playing the game at a high level, no matter if people think I’m the 11th best safety or the No. 1 safety,” Baker continued. “I hold myself to a very high standard and I try to be the best each and every day. And hopefully, on the field, it shows each and every year.”Baker was given a four-year, $59 million extension in 2020, which made him the highest-paid safety at the time. Two years later, the Cardinals gave Pro Bowl quarterback Kyler Murray a five-year, $230.5 million extension. However, the talk of the NFL recently has been the extra details concerning Murray’s contract.On Monday, NFL Media insider Ian Rapoport reported that an addendum in the Cardinals quarterback’s contract requires Sam Hubbard Jersey four hours of independent study each week of every season.Scroll to ContinueIt’s an unusual clause in a contract, which defines independent study as any material that Murray will receive to Vernon Hargreaves III Jersey prepare for the Cardinals’ next game. This includes film work that Murray would watch on his own time.Baker has been Murray’s teammate since the young quarterback entered the league in 2019. The star safety told reporters that he stands by Murray’s work ethic.For me, I know that K1 is a hard worker,” Baker said. “Guys are different. Some like to stay at the facility and watch film . . . Some guys like to watch film at home and to be by themselves and stuff like that. So everybody’s different . . . And, you know, I’m definitely excited for K1. He’s going into another year (and) just got paid. So everything is good. All he thinks about is football.”The Cardinals are hoping to rebound after losing in last year’s wild-card game to the division rival Los Angeles Rams.Yet, Baker hasn’t stopped watching the 34-11 lo s to the eventual Super Bowl champions, which included the safety being stretchered off the field after a bull-dozing hit by running back Cam Akers.”It’s a matter of who’s going to put that extra work in each and every, every day,” Baker said. “And I’ve watched the game about six, seven or eight times probably and, of course, as you guys know, I got hurt that game. So I wanted to see what I did wrong in order to not do that again.”This year’s Cardinals do not feature Pro Bowl pa s rusher Chandler Jones, who signed with the Las Vegas Raiders in free agency.Baker still embraces that putting in the work will show the team’s identity.”It’s just going to come out to the Samaje Perine Jersey test of who worked hard in this offseason, of course, who worked hard in this training camp. And then once the season starts, everyone’s gonna know where we are,” Baker said Tuesday.
