Budda Baker will miss at least four games as Cardinals place star safety on injured reserve

The Arizona Cardinals on Monday placed Pro Bowl safety Budda Baker on injured reserve.

Baker, a team captain and the heart of Arizona's defense, will miss a minimum of four games per NFL rules. That does not include Sundays' game against the New York Giants, in which he sat out.

Baker was injured Friday in practice, the team announcing it on the injury report that day as a hamstring issue. He was inactive for Sunday's game, when the Giants overcame a 20-0 first-half deficit to rally past the Cardinals 31-28.

Head coach Jonathan Gannon, speaking to reporters Monday afternoon at the team’s training facility in Tempe, Arizona, did not provide the exact extent of Baker’s injury, but did say there was no tear to the hamstring of any kind.

“He’s going to miss some time, but he’ll be back,” Gannon said, adding, “He’ll be ready to go here pretty soon and be ready to roll.”

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Baker was replaced at safety by Andre Chachere against New York.

The Cardinals signed safety Qwuantrezz Knight off the San Francisco 49ers practice squad and added him to the active roster. Arizona also signed safety Joey Blount to the practice squad, placing offensive lineman Hayden Howerton on the practice squad injured reserve list.

The earliest Baker could return would be Oct. 22 for Arizona’s game at Seattle. If he is able to play by then, he still will have missed five games – tying the total number of games he’s missed previously in his Cardinals’ career since being drafted by the club with a second-round pick in 2017.

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Gannon said all of Arizona’s defenders will have to pick up the slack during Baker’s absence.

“Yeah, all of them,” he said. “We’ve all got to rally around. You’re never going to replace a Budda Baker but we’ve got guys we feel comfortable with getting the job done who play winning football for us. Everyone’s just got to do their job and we’ll be OK.”

In other injury-related news, the Cardinals could be without two important defensive linemen for a considerable amount of time following biceps injuries to both L.J. Collier and Carlos Watkins. Collier was injured during Arizona’s Week 1 loss at Washington and Watkins was injured on Sunday in Glendale.

On Saturday, Collier was placed on injured reserve and will miss at least three more games. But it could be longer, Gannon implied following Sunday’s loss to the Giants. He did not elaborate on Monday. As for Watkins, Gannon said, “We’re evaluating (his situation) right now.”

Knight spent his rookie season on the 49ers practice squad after signing with San Francisco in 2022 as an undrafted free agent out of UCLA.

At UCLA, Knight played two seasons appeared in 19 games with 106 tackles, 13 tackles for loss nine pass breakups. He also played college ball at Maryland and Kent State.