{"id":15217,"date":"2017-03-09T16:00:05","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T21:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/?p=15217"},"modified":"2022-02-02T18:49:16","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T23:49:16","slug":"chris-baker-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2017\/03\/09\/chris-baker-signs\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Chris Baker to Sign With Tampa Bay Buccaneers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Peter Schrager of Fox Sports reports that defensive lineman\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=BakeCh00,BakeCh99&amp;search=Chris+Baker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Baker<\/a>\u00a0will sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. \u00a0Baker played in all 16 of Washington&#8217;s games last season, notching 3.5 sacks, 49 tackles combined, 29-individual, and two passes defensed. These stats might not be the flashiest at the defensive tackle spot, but according to Pro Football Focus \u2013 the lineman played 71% of the snaps at the position (fourth\u00a0overall on the defense).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Tampa Bay not done plucking from Washington. Barring any snags, Bucs are closing in on a deal to sign DL Chris Baker. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gmfb?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@gmfb<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFLonFOX?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@NFLonFOX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PSchrags\/status\/839921009771827200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 9, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Ex Skins DL Chris Baker has 3-yr deal with Bucs worth $6M+ per year. Tampa getting strong up front<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JasonLaCanfora\/status\/839944903144656896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 9, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Chris Baker to Sign With Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/h2>\n<p>Former free agent Chris Baker\u2019s 2016 season was solid, but unarguably a step down compared to his six-sack performance that earned him a contract bonus in 2015. A talented defensive backfield with sparkly names (ie: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=NormJo01,NormJo00&amp;search=Josh+Norman&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Josh Norman<\/a>, Su\u2019a Cravens, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BreeBa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bashaud Breeland<\/a>) took the attention off of the front seven. The Redskins defense didn\u2019t have a lot of big names, but this season, Baker was a core interior piece to a thin defensive line that didn\u2019t have too many other alternatives.<\/p>\n<p>The defensive tackle will be 30 in October, and that\u2019s something teams will definitely look at. But on tape, the 320lb lineman still has a recognizable motor that\u2019s worth noticing. His age shouldn\u2019t be a deterrent; his proven performance over the last couple of years swiftly commanded a significant amount of attention from teams looking to add a piece to their respective defensive lines.<\/p>\n<p>A Windsor, CT native, Chris Baker played high school ball for the Hartford Colonials. He then spent two seasons at Penn State University, playing as a member of the Nittany Lions, before transferring to Hampton University to finish his collegiate career.<\/p>\n<p>Chris Baker went undrafted in the 2009 NFL Draft. After having a couple one year stints with the Denver Broncos and Miami Dolphins, he caught on with the Washington Redskins in 2011. Baker would record his first career sack on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CutlJa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jay Cutler<\/a> in week seven of the 2013 season. His tough, hard-nosed play style earned him a starting role in 2014 which he\u2019s yet to relinquish.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/630282608\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/630282608?et=xESTOPncSeZJ3HRRJ7T2pQ&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=0X9Bk7ZhyemGs9aMsTLBwVb3K1Y9s7RZ0YeoHXFyoPM=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Impending free agent Chris Baker had a solid 2016 season, but unarguably a step down compared to his six-sack performance in 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1870,"featured_media":15294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,29,8896,22],"tags":[7331],"class_list":["post-15217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-buccaneers","category-washington-commanders","category-washington-football-team","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers-news"],"modified_by":"Al Preziosi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1870"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}