Two-time Pro Bowl safety Budda Baker has agreed to terms on a $59 million, four-year contract extension with the Arizona Cardinals.

The team announced the deal on Tuesday. Baker’s agent David Mulugheta confirmed the terms and that $33.1 million is guaranteed, which makes him among the NFL’s highest-paid safeties.

The 5-foot-10, 195-pound Baker played in college at Washington and was drafted in the second round in 2017. The 24-year-old has quickly become a young cornerstone for the Cardinals’ defense and led all NFL defensive backs with 147 tackles last season, including 104 solo tackles.

Baker’s rookie contract was set to expire after this season, but now he’s under contract through 2024.

Arizona’s defense was among the NFL’s worst in 2019, but had two standout players in Baker and linebacker Chandler Jones. The Cardinals expect to be much better this fall after several key additions, including free agent linebackers Devon Kennard and De’Vondre Campbell, along with defensive lineman Jordan Phillips. They also used the No. 8 overall pick in April’s draft to add versatile linebacker Isaiah Simmons.

The soft-spoken Baker is popular in the Cardinals’ locker room and has forged a somewhat unlikely friendship with Jones, who is several years older and much more outgoing. Both of them are among the leaders on the defense, along with three-time All-Pro cornerback Patrick Peterson and linebacker Jordan Hicks.

Baker is the first player in franchise history to be selected to the Pro Bowl as a special teams player and a defensive player. He made 16 special teams tackles in 2017 and was the first Cardinals rookie since Peterson to be selected to the Pro Bowl.

BROWNS: Rookie safety Grant Delpit ruptured his right Achilles tendon while going through individual drills on Monday, a freak injury and another dose of bad luck for Cleveland and first-year coach Kevin Stefanski, who has lost three likely defensive starters in a week to injuries.

The team said Tuesday that Delpit, a second-round pick from national champion LSU, will undergo surgery.

Delpit got hurt while backpedaling during the early portion of practice. He dropped to the turf and grabbed his lower leg while waiting for assistance. He had to be helped onto a cart to be driven back to the team’s facility. An MRI test revealed the tear.

VIKINGS: Linebacker Cameron Smith’s surgery to repair an enlarged heart has gone as planned, after a false positive COVID-19 test earlier this month led to the diagnosis of the second-year player’s genetic defect.

Coach Mike Zimmer said Smith was “in good shape” after the procedure Monday in Philadelphia, where he’ll stay “for awhile” to recover.

Smith said earlier this month the rehabilitation process would take about three months until he’s cleared for unrestricted physical activity. He’ll miss the 2020 season. Drafted in the fifth round out of USC in 2019, Smith said he’s confident he’ll be able to resume his career in 2021.

49ERS: Star edge rusher Nick Bosa and rookie receiver Brandon Aiyuk will both miss at least one week of practice with lower-body injuries.

Coach Kyle Shanahan said Bosa had complained last week of soreness in his leg and got time off from practice. When that didn’t help he underwent an MRI that showed a muscle strain that has him out on a week-to-week basis.

Aiyuk had been extremely impressive early in camp before coming up lame on a deep pass during Sunday’s practice. He was diagnosed with a mild left hamstring strain that was not as serious as initially feared. He also is week to week.

COURTS: Dementia tests in the NFL concussion litigation allow doctors to use different baseline standards for Black and white retired players, making it more difficult for Blacks to show injury and qualify for awards, lawyers for two ex-players argued in court filings Tuesday.

The settlement fund has so far paid about $720 million to retired players for neurocognitive problems linked to NFL concussions, including more than $300 million for dementia. The dementia claims have proven especially contentious – three-quarters of them have been denied, often after challenges from the NFL.

Lawyers for ex-players Kevin Henry and Najeh Davenport said their clients were denied awards “based on a discriminatory testing regime” that weighs demographic factors including race. Both men would have qualified for awards had race not been considered, they said.

“Black former players have been automatically assumed, through a statistical manipulation called `race-norming,’ to have started with worse cognitive functioning than White former players,” the lawyers wrote.

That makes it harder to show they’ve suffered a deficit and deserve compensation, they said.

LIONS: The Detroit Lions decided not to practice on Tuesday, protesting after a Black man was shot by police in Wisconsin.

“We came up with this one as a unit,” Detroit defensive end Trey Flowers said.

Lions Coach Matt Patricia opened the team’s morning meeting by allowing players to share their thoughts on the shooting of Jacob Blake, who is paralyzed from the waist down. Blake was shot Sunday, three months after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

The players continued to discuss Blake’s shooting and shared their personal experiences regarding race in the locker room.

Lions players and Patricia later filed out of the team’s practice facility, pushing a dry-erase board on wheels along the sidewalk to address the media. The words: “The world can’t go on,” was written in blue on one side of the dry-erase board and “We won’t be silent!! One pride,” was in black on the other side of the white board.

Patricia said he is proud of the players and hopes they inspire other people and teams in the NFL to take a stand for social justice.

“I challenge everybody to do this, everybody in the league to do this,” Patricia said.

CHARGERS: Wide receiver Mike Williams sprained his right shoulder on Sunday when he landed awkwardly while trying to dive for a ball.

Coach Anthony Lynn didn’t put a timetable on when Williams would be able to return and tried not to speculate on his status going into the scheduled Sept. 13 opener at Cincinnati.

“He’s going to be out for a while. I would hope he could return for the opener but I don’t know right now,” Lynn said.

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