Budda Baker, healthy Kyler Murray snubbed from list of most dominant players

Here on the NFL Wire sites, the managing editors voted on the most dominant players in the NFL. The results were released (50-26) and (25-1).

No Arizona Cardinals player made the list, which perhaps is not a surprise.

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However, two players deserve consideration. One is safety Budda Baker and the other is quarterback Kyler Murray.

Murray’s absence is understandable as he is coming off a down year and a torn ACL. However, as we say for much of 2021 and part of 2020, he is as good as the best quarterbacks in the NFL and can change games. He basically singlehandedly gave the Cardinals a win against the Raiders last season.

When he is healthy, he is a dominant player, even if his numbers aren’t always eye-popping.

Baker’s omittance is a mystery. He is always around the ball, makes plays on the ball, is a volume tackler despite being the smallest player on the defense and is the one player opposing offenses must account for.

But based on analytics, it isn’t a surprise he isn’t there.

After he wasn’t chosen as one of 20 top safeties in the NFL by Touchdown Wire, we can’t expect the rest of the NFL Wire editors to stand up for him, especially when the Cardinals were so bad last season and are not expected to be great this year — essentially prompting the question as to how dominant is he really if his team is bad.

Perhaps with a solid 2023, both can make the cut in next offseason’s list.

Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Spotify.