Arizona Cardinals DBs coach talks about Budda Baker, Jalen Thompson more

He’s officially listed as defensive backs coach, but 35-year-old Patrick Toney is essentially the Arizona Cardinals' safeties coach, where he leads a room with Budda Baker and Jalen Thompson at the position.

Prior to being hired by head coach Jonathan Gannon for his first NFL job in 2023, Toney coached 11 seasons in college, including being defensive coordinator at Florida in 2022.

His other stops were at Southeast Louisiana (2012-2014), Sam Houston (2015), Texas-San Antonio (2017-2018) and Louisiana (2018-2021).

Now in his third season with the Cardinals, Toney talked with the media Friday about his job and coaching veteran standouts like Baker and Thompson.

Q: You’ve had to do some juggling of late because of injuries, so what are your feelings about (rookie) Kitan Crawford and the job he’s doing?

A: Kitan's doing a really good job. He'd be mad I called him that. He likes to go by “Bug.” But he's done a really good job. He's worked while he's waited. And then like you said, things have happened throughout the course of the season where he's gotten opportunities to go in the game. And when he's gone in the game, he's executed really well and been productive for us. He's got extreme talent and he's growing week by week. He's getting comfortable in the defense. I think the future is really bright for him. He's a really good addition to our room.

Q: We obviously saw a lot of what Rabbit (Dadrion Taylor-Demerson) could do as a rookie. What have you seen him do in Year 2 with some larger opportunities, especially earlier in the year?

A: Rabbit has continued to do a good job, too. I think he's another ascending player. Early on in the year, because of the juggling due to injuries in the back end, he played a lot of free safety for us there for about four or five weeks when Garrett (Williams) was out and did a really good job. Obviously, he's got good ball instincts. He's got two takeaways on the year. He's got some PBUs (pass breakups). He's another guy that works really hard at it and is really fun to coach.

Q: With your two veteran safeties, they've done a lot in this league for a long time. It felt like last week might have been their best games in terms of at the same time. How do you see how their seasons have played out and what they've brought to the table?

A: It's hard to say because they've had so many good games. They played really well last week. They do bring a lot to the table. Like you said, those guys have played a lot of football and they've seen a lot of football, which I think really helps the younger players in the room at safety and corner. Just really good players. The versatility of Jalen has been huge for us since we've been here. And then this year, being able to swing in there at nickel when Garrett was out was critical so that we could put Rabbit in at safety, kind of make things work.

And then Budda's presence, he's the guy that's got the arrow on him every week from a coaching staff standpoint. I heard Jacksonville was calling him Waldo, the guy they gotta find on the field on every play and he did a good job still finding a way to have production even though they're always looking for him. But I can't say enough good things about those two guys.

Q: What sort of things does Budda see? What do teams throw at him, for example?

A: Well, I think it's just more the awareness of, when I heard that quote, it's just the awareness that the quarterback needs to find him every play. So it's not like he's gonna get a cheap one because they weren't prepared for where he might be. They're literally trying to identify where he is and know the different things that he can do within the system to wreck the game. And I thought he did a really good job last week, obviously every week, but he came away with an interception. It was a phenomenal play getting set up off the quarterback, breaking with some instincts, finding the route and then getting his eyes back and laying out for the catch. It was very impressive.

The blitz that he had the sack on or the half sack, whatever it was. That was really good timing on that pressure and then to finish it and then, I don't know if you guys saw, the quarterback obviously saw he was hot off him and was trying to drift away from him and still couldn't get away from the pressure.

Q: It looks like Baker Mayfield is trending to start on Sunday. What do you see out of him and just some of the challenges facing him?

A: He has high-level quarterback play, really good on time in the pocket and then can create when he extends out of the pocket. And then he's tough to get down when he does break the line of scrimmage. So high-level quarterback play, really impressed watching him with being our first time playing him here.

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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Cardinals DBs coach talks about Budda Baker, Jalen Thompson more