Much of the conversation surrounding the Arizona Cardinals this offseason has been focused on whether the Kyler Murray-led offense will soar in 2025. But interestingly, despite lingering concerns about whether Murray is the guy or whether Marvin Harrison Jr. can reach his full potential, the Cards decided to devote most of their offseason resources to bolstering an already unique defense built by defensive coordinator Nick Rallis.
The way Nick Rallis, who has been described as “brilliant” by Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon, has built his defense is a fairly modern approach. Rather than bringing a system with him to Arizona and expecting his players to fit it, the 32-year-old third-year DC instead has allowed his defense to evolve based not only on the personnel in place in the desert, but also what he’s expecting to see from offenses on a weekly basis.
“It’s completely morphed and grown as you just problem-solve offenses,” Rallis told Theo Mackie of The Arizona Republic. “Figure out why they’re beating people, why they’re gashing people. Some of that stuff comes from my own wounds, going against those guys. And then it’s, you’re able to see who has some success against them.”
But this isn’t a case of Nick Rallis just copying and pasting what’s worked around the NFL into Arizona’s defensive schemes. Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel said of the Cardinals defense earlier this year, “They’ve built a unique system that isn’t off any particular format that I’ve seen in the NFL.” That is all on Rallis, who made sure to clarify that he builds his scheme around the players, not the other way around.
So with so many new faces — including established veterans Josh Sweat, Calais Campbell and Dalvin Tomlinson, plus rookies Walter Nolen and Will Johnson — in the fold, Rallis must be feeling like a 7-year-old with an unlimited budget perusing around a toy store, excitedly overwhelmed by all of the options he has at his disposal. But even with all of these other options, Rallis has one metaphorical ‘toy’ that is his favorite right now… safety Budda Baker.
Budda Baker’s Versatility The Key to Nick Rallis’ Defense
Since being selected by the Cardinals with the 36th overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, Budda Baker has proven to be one of the league’s steadiest and most successful safeties. In eight NFL seasons, Baker has been named a Pro Bowler seven times, and he’s earned All-Pro recognition in four different seasons, including the 2024 campaign when he set a career high with 164 tackles.
So how is it that Baker, who turned 29 back in January, had maybe the best year of his career this deep into his career? Not to take anything away from one of the league’s best safeties, but a lot of it is in how Nick rallis decided to weaponize him.
“Budda definitely changed how (the defense) evolved and how it gets called,” Rallis said. “I look back at some of the tape from 2023 and I’m like, ‘Why did we have Budda right there? We should’ve had him right here.’ And then once you saw him go to work within the initial foundation, you started to create stuff for him.”
As a result, Budda Baker played more in the box, allowing one of the league’s most fundamentally sound and hardest-hitting safeties to be closer to the action on a down-by-down basis. It’s not only allowed Baker to play some of his best football… it’s given the Cardinals defense the freedom to play more three-high safety structures with just one inside linebacker on the field — a ‘penny’ look — which many analysts expect to spread around the entire NFL.
Budda Baker and Nick Rallis is clearly a match made in football heaven, or hell, if you’re on the opposite sideline. Baker respectfully referred to Rallis as a ‘mad scientist’ in an interview with Mina Kimes, a title which he doesn’t necessarily love.
“I am not a mad scientist holed in my office,” Rallis said explicitly.
At this point, though, it seems like he should learn to embrace it.
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