This Sunday, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold has a chance to renew acquaintances with his old friend Baker Mayfield. Mayfield will lead his Tampa Bay Buccaneers into Lumen Field for a battle between two 3-1 teams. It is not a situation many would have foreseen just three years ago, when the two QBs were teammates in Carolina.
Mayfield was asked about that time period during a press conference this week. SI.com’s Richie Whitt reported Mayfield’s response to a question about whether they ever reminisced about the “good old days in Carolina.”
Flashing the deadpan humor that made him a favorite of advertisers back when he was having success in Cleveland, Mayfield responded, “Reminisce on WHAT days?”
Seahawks' Sam Darnold and Bucs' Baker Mayfield’s NFL journeys continue to crisscross
To be sure, there wasn’t very much good about those days in Carolina. It was Darnold’s second NFL way station, after he flamed out with the Jets. Carolina had ponied up some decent draft assets to acquire him in 2021, but his performance still left a lot to be desired.
So the following season, they traded for Mayfield. It paired the number one and three overall picks in the 2018 draft on the same squad. Mayfield had risen higher and therefore fallen farther in his brief NFL career by the time he came to the Panthers.
Mayfield won the starting job but was ineffective. He eventually got hurt. Darnold, who was himself recovering from an injury, waited on the bench while PJ. Walker started games in the middle part of the season with no more success.
When Darnold got his chance to play in the final six games, he outperformed the man who had been chosen ahead of him back in 2018. He led the Panthers to four wins over their final six games and kept them in playoff contention until the second-to-last week. He threw seven touchdowns against just three interceptions and recorded a passer rating of 92.6.
Not that we’re keeping score here, but Mayfield’s rating was 74.4 that season.
Neither player would be in Carolina the following year. The Panthers moved heaven and earth (as well as D.J. Moore and a bunch of draft picks) to select Bryce Young as their new franchise QB. The two former first-rounders from the 2022 season were released.
Actually, Mayfield’s release came before the 2022 season was even over, during that modestly successful run Darnold had late in the season. Mayfield spent five minutes with Sean McVay and the Rams and was seemingly rejuvenated. He has taken the Bucs to the playoffs in each of his two seasons in Tampa and once again has them in first place in the NFC South.
Darnold played in 2023 under Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco before landing with Kevin O’Connell in Minnesota. Like his old friend Baker, Darnold led his team to the playoffs last year. It’s remarkable how a quality offensive-minded head coach can help revive the careers of once-promising QBs who had been given up for dead.
Actually, it’s not surprising in the least, and it calls into question every franchise that does not do everything it can to help develop its young quarterbacks.
By now, both Darnold and Mayfield are veterans who have weathered adversity and come out looking good.
Elaborating on his answer about the “good old days’ in Carolina, Mayfield went on to say that he and Darnold remain close and that he is happy for his old teammate. It seems as if every year, there are multiple examples of young quarterbacks who struggle early on at the most difficult position on the field, and then are jettisoned by their team. Sometimes, by the entire league.
Fortunately for Tampa, they gave Baker Mayfield a chance, and he has paid off their confidence with division titles. It is too early to know whether Darnold will pay the same dividends in Seattle, but he is off to a promising start. Certainly more promising than those days in Carolina.