To whatever degree people talk about the Arizona Cardinals’ safety group, the conversation usually begins and ends with Budda Baker, the former Washington star selected in the second round of the 2017 draft. Baker is a dynamic player, and he’s certainly been paid as such — the Cardinals rewarded him for his exploits on the field with a four-year, $59 million contract extension in 2020 that makes him the sixth highest-paid safety in the NFL on a per-year basis.
But Baker isn’t the only Cardinals safety playing well these days. He’s not even the only one who went to a college in the Pacific Northwest, and now, he’s not the only one who’s been paid. On Friday, the Cardinals signed Jalen Thompson, the fourth-year man from Washington State taken in the fifth round of the 2019 supplemental draft, to a three-year, $40 million contract extension with $24.5 million in guaranteed money.
