Defensive Backs Coach
NFL Experience: 14
Years with Buccaneers: 1
Joe Baker enters his first season on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coaching staff as defensive backs coach.Baker spent the past two seasons (2007-2008) with the Denver Broncos, serving as an offensive assistant in 2008 and as the club’s linebackers coach in 2007. The veteran coach has worked in the NFL for the last nine seasons and owns 13 years of coaching experience in the league gained from positions with five different teams. Baker coached for the St. Louis Rams (2006), Green Bay Packers (2005), New Orleans Saints (2000-2004) and Jacksonville Jaguars (1995-1998) before joining Denver in 2007.
Baker helped guide a Broncos offense in 2008 that finished the season as the NFL’s second-ranked offense, averaging 395.8 yards per game. As linebackers coach for the Broncos in 2007, Baker instructed D.J. Williams as the fourth-year player transitioned to playing the middle linebacker position for the first time in his career and finished second in the NFL with an AFC-best 141 tackles. Baker’s group of linebackers also were a key part of an aggressive defense that led the AFC and tied for third in the league with 34 forced fumbles.
With Baker handling defensive quality control and working with the linebackers in 2006, the Rams ranked seventh in the NFL in takeaways (32) and forced a league-high nine turnovers inside the red zone. Baker instructed LB Will Witherspoon, who posted a career and team-high 136 tackles to lead a linebacking unit that helped St. Louis rank eighth in the league against the pass (189.7 ypg).
Baker joined the Rams from Green Bay, where he spent the 2005 season as its secondary/safeties coach. He taught a secondary that helped the Packers rank first in the NFL against the pass, allowing 167.5 yards per game to mark the club’s lowest such total in 27 seasons.
In five years with the Saints from 2000-2004, Baker coached in several different capacities as New Orleans ranked fifth in the NFL in takeaways (163) during his time with the club. He was New Orleans’ secondary coach from 2003-2004, secondary assistant in 2002 and assistant defensive backfield/assistant special teams coach from 2000-2001.
Baker instructed a New Orleans secondary in 2004 that was vital to one of the NFL’s most aggressive defenses, with the team leading the league in opponent fumble recoveries (20) and tying for the NFL high in red zone takeaways (7). New Orleans’ defensive backfield also excelled under Baker in 2003, helping the club rank third in the NFC and eighth in NFL in pass defense (187.1 ypg.).
During the 2001 season as New Orleans’ defensive backfield/assistant special teams coach, Baker instructed S Sammy Knight as he posted the third-highest interception total (6) among NFL safeties to earn a Pro Bowl selection.
At the University of Wisconsin in 1999, Baker was the Badgers’ outside linebackers/special teams coach for a team that captured the Big Ten Conference title and earned a victory in the Rose Bowl. Wisconsin led the Big Ten in kickoff and punt coverage, kickoff return average and field goal percentage with Baker instructing its special teams.
Baker began his NFL career in 1994 with the Jacksonville Jaguars as their manager of football operations, helping the club prepare for its 1995 expansion season. He worked as the Jaguars’ assistant special teams coach for the next four seasons (1995-1998), a time period when Jacksonville fielded one of the league’s most consistent special teams. From 1995-1998, the Jaguars ranked second in the NFL in net punting average (37.9 avg.), third in gross punting average (44.4 avg.), seventh in punt return average (11.0 avg.) and eighth in opponent punt return average (8.2 avg.).
With Baker on its coaching staff, Jacksonville advanced to the AFC Championship Game in just its second season in 1996. The Jaguars posted 11 wins in each of the next two seasons with two of Baker’s pupils, K Mike Hollis and P Bryan Barker, earning Pro Bowl honors in 1997.
Before joining the Jaguars, Baker coached running backs and wide receivers at Samford University (Birmingham, Alabama) in 1993. He spent time in 1992 as a player personnel coordinator for the World Football League’s Birmingham Fire before taking a position at Samford.
Baker began his football coaching career in 1991 as a graduate assistant at East Stroudsburg University (PA) instructing its defensive backs for that season.
A former wide receiver at Princeton University (1987-1990), Baker helped the Tigers capture the 1989 Ivy League co-championship. He graduated from the school in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in history.
Baker was born June 29, 1969, in Glen Ridge, N.J. He and his wife, Jill, have a nine-year-old daughter, Mia, and a four-year-old son, Joey.
BAKER AT A GLANCE
- 1987-1990...Princeton University, player
- 1991...East Stroudsburg University, Graduate Assistant/Defensive Backs
- 1992...Birmingham Fire, Player Personnel Coordinator (WFL)
- 1993...Samford University, Running Backs/Wide Receivers Coach
- 1995-98...Jacksonville Jaguars, Assistant Special Teams Coach
- 1999...University of Wisconsin, Outside Linebackers/Special Teams Coach
- 2000-01...New Orleans Saints, Asst. Def. Backfield/Asst. Special Teams
- 2002...New Orleans Saints, Secondary Assistant Coach
- 2003-04...New Orleans Saints, Secondary Coach
- 2005...Green Bay Packers, Secondary/Safeties Coach
- 2006...St. Louis Rams, Defensive Quality Control/Linebackers Coach
- 2007...Denver Broncos, Linebackers Coach
- 2008...Denver Broncos, Offensive Assistant Coach
- 2009...Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Defensive Backs Coach
