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#24 Overall, Budda Baker, Arizona Cardinals, Free Safety, #1 Safety
2025 Pre-Season Rank #28, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #43, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #78, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #86, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #113, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #147. Peak Period: 2020-24.
There are a lot of parallels with our highest-rated cornerback, Jalen Ramsey, and our highest-ranked safety, Budda Baker:
Both have a loaded baseline we are comparing them to, and both feel like something is missing.
We have had Baker at #1 in Safeties since the removal of Earl Thomas, but honestly, we aren’t in a golden era of Safeties. It is a high bar for this position, and the Hall itself often ignores that spot on the field. Regardless, Baker is an eight-time Pro Bowl selection (seven as a Safety, one in Special Teams), and his tackling numbers are incredible, as among all Safeties over the past seven seasons, his tally is easily the highest.
Baker is now 30, and there is no reason he can’t keep producing at a high level; given the Safety baseline, he will have to.
#44 Overall, Minkah Fitzpatrick, New York Jets, Free Safety, #3 Safety
2025 Pre-Season Rank #43, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #56, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #63, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #99, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #108, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #140. Peak Period 2019-23.
Minkah Fitzpatrick has been a three-time First Team All-Pro, and since he debuted for the Miami Dolphins in 2018, he has earned the reputation of having one of the highest football IQs. Able to shift effortlessly in any Defensive Back position, Fitzpatrick starts 2026 for his third team, the New York Jets.
The Hall is a tricky path for Fitzpatrick, who, as beloved as he is, has to carve a more dominant path in his 30s in a position often overlooked by Hall of Fame eyes. This isn’t writing Minkah off by any means, but a monster season in New York would be massive for his chances.
Modern Positional Average
Safeties:
Here are the three Safeties who have entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame and played within the last 25 years. They comprise our baseline:
Brian Dawkins (2018), John Lynch (2021) & Troy Polamalu (2020).
Please note that with the change to recognizing Hall of Famers who played in the last 25 years, we removed Steve Atwater from the Modern Positional Average. Atwater’s removal elevated the MPA for the Safety position.
Here are the statistical averages that we are using based on the last group of Safeties\s to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame:
- Games Played: 187.7
- Approximate Value: 113.3
- Approximate Value per Games Played: 0.6036
- Games Started: 166
- Approximate Value per Games Started: 0.6270
- Approximate Value per Five-Year Peak: 67.3
- Approximate Value’s Best Five Results: 65
- Pro Bowls: 7
- First Team All-Pros*: 3.33
- Interceptions: 32
- Interceptions Five-Year Peak: 16.33
- Combined Tackles: 910.33
- Combined Tackles Five-Year Peak: 414.7
- Super Bowl Wins: 1.67
- Super Bowl Appearances: 1.333
*This is an aggregate of the Top Five finishes (5th = 1, 4th = 2, 3rd = 3, 2nd = 4th, 1st = 5)
**This is a reminder that the All-Pros we use are from the AP.
#23 Overall, Jalen Ramsey, Pittsburgh Steelers, #1 Cornerback
2025 Pre-Season Rank #20, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #20, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #23, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #35, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #54, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #73.
The Rams believed that Jalen Ramsey was the best Cornerback in the NFL, and they went all in to get him during the 2019 season when he was disgruntled in Jacksonville. Ramsey was the top CB in 2020, adding a second First Team All-Pro, a fourth Pro Bowl, and posting a career-high in Approximate Value (15). Currently, over the AV/G, Ramsey added another Pro Bowl, First Team All-Pro, and, more importantly, a Super Bowl in 2021, proving the Rams right. Ramsey claimed a sixth Pro Bowl in 2022 and a seventh with his third team in Miami, which was impressive considering he only played ten games in 2023.
One knock on Ramsey is that he is now on his fourth team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, but he is still a good player, albeit in decline, and another Pro Bowl-caliber season is in doubt. Nevertheless, we have him as the highest-ranked cornerback for this study, though is he on the level of some of the Corners we use as a baseline? His peak was excellent, but when you look at our baseline CBs, it is a hard level to break.
Ramsey might still need a lot more.
