Budda Baker Madden 21 Rating: Should it Get Upgraded?

Budda Baker's Madden 21 rating needs to change.

After leading the NFL last year in solo tackles and making his first Pro Bowl, Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker did not even crack the top 10 in the initial Madden 21 safety ratings. It would be interesting to sit in on the Madden rating meetings and listen to how they justified leaving the highest-paid safety in the league out of the top 10.

While giving Derrick Henry a 93 overall rating is disappointing to say the least, leaving Baker out of the top 10 is downright disrespectful. The top-ranked safety coming into the season was Harrison Smith of the Minnesota Vikings at a 95 overall rating. The only problem. He was not even All-Pro last year and arguably is not even the best safety on his team. His teammate Anthony Harris was tied for the lead in interceptions with six.

Back to Baker. One would naturally assume that a player who led the league with 104 solo tackles would have a pretty high tackle rating at the very least. Madden disagrees. His 76 tackle rating is borderline unbelievable, especially when you consider it is not even the highest rating for safeties in the game.

Budda Baker Madden 21 Rating: Should it Get Upgraded?

But when you think the Madden ratings adjustors did not even put Minkah Fitzpatrick in the top 10 safety ratings at the beginning of the season, this all starts to make more sense. Yea. Fitzpatrick had five interceptions in 14 games and earned first-team All-Pro honors. That seems a little off. Don't you think?

Baker, outside of a quick UCL tear in this thumb that required surgery and sidelined him for a single game, is playing like a man out to prove Madden wrong. Last night against the Dallas Cowboys, he became the first Arizona Cardinal player since 2003 to record a sack, a forced fumble, and an interception in a single game according to Brad Grass of Fox 10 Phoenix.

Hopefully, Madden will come to their senses soon, but I won't hold my breath. Baker started the season with 15 total tackles and Madden rewarded him by dropping his overall from 86 to 85 after Week 4.

It would seemingly be very difficult for Madden to find a way to look past Budda Baker's performance last night, but it is 2020, and that means anything goes.