2. Chris Baker, defensive tackle, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Contract: three-years, $15.8 million
Baker was absolutely tremendous for Washington as a two-way player this past season. The former un-drafted free agent from Hampton was dominating against the run and still found a way to get to the quarterback to the tune of 4.5 sacks in 16 games, all starts. This led to speculation that Baker might receive a massive payday for his overall excellence.
It simply didn’t play out that way. While $15.8 million over three seasons is not horrible, it’s not the market that Baker was expecting. After all, he was among the best players at his position in all of football last season.
New Buccaneers DT Chris Baker earned the 18th-best overall grade (82.2) among interior defenders last season.
📝: https://t.co/njlEb9mqTY pic.twitter.com/C2TNnBzmau
— PFF (@PFF) March 9, 2017
The details of Baker’s contract are also rather interesting. Baker will earn $6 million guaranteed for the 2017 season, pretty much making it a one-year deal. If he fails to live up to expectations, the Buccaneers can release the veteran without a dead cap hit in 2018.
On the field, Baker and Gerald McCoy now form one of the best one-two defensive tackle tandems in the NFL. They are going to be extremely hard to run against. Equally as important, the two combined for 11 sacks last season. That should be a major issue for opposing NFC South quarterbacks in 2017.