How did Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield go from NFL castoffs to the playoffs?

This NFL wild-card weekend is filled with quarterbacks who have reached some of the game’s greatest heights. In the opening round, there are two spectacular rookies, last season’s offensive rookie of the year, two Super Bowl winners, a two-time most valuable player … and two quarterbacks who somehow found their way off the scrap heap, Minnesota’s Sam Darnold and Tampa Bay’s Baker Mayfield.

Mayfield was drafted first overall in 2018, and Darnold went third. They were stars before they got to the league. Then, as coveted young quarterbacks often do, they struggled to get their footing. They flamed out with their first teams and began bouncing around the league.

Mayfield spent his first four seasons with the Cleveland Browns and at times showed great promise, even leading the franchise to a playoff victory over Pittsburgh. But there were lots of low points, too, including a shoulder injury that spelled a quiet end to his stint in that city.

He wound up in Carolina with the woeful Panthers, then had a brief stay with the Rams, arriving in L.A. and, astoundingly, two days later — and with almost no knowledge of the playbook — beating the Las Vegas Raiders.

Still, Mayfield was only filling in for an injured Matthew Stafford, so he wasn’t long for Los Angeles. It wasn’t until Mayfield got to Tampa that he truly found durable success, and this season he has guided the Buccaneers to an NFC South title and a first-round game Sunday against the visiting Washington Commanders.

Darnold’s career resuscitation is even more abrupt and surprising. The former USC standout will face the Rams on Monday night in Glendale, Ariz., a game relocated by the NFL because of the L.A. wildfires.

Read more: NFL moves Rams playoff game against Minnesota Vikings to Arizona

At 14-3, the Vikings are absurdly successful for a wild-card team that has to hit the road but they lost their finale, and the NFC North, to the 15-2 Detroit Lions, so Minnesota had to pack its bags.

Once a turnover machine, Darnold has been remarkably steady this season. He threw for 35 touchdowns with 12 interceptions and finished with a robust passer rating of 102.5, his career best by far.

His career odyssey took him from the New York Jets to the Panthers — he and Mayfield were there at the same time — to the San Francisco 49ers, where he watched and learned, and now to the Vikings. Some might be waiting for him to come back to earth, but it’s so far so good.

In order to get a different perspective on the paths of Darnold and Mayfield, I reached out to three former NFL quarterbacks who know the players well and have insights on the factors that have and continue to shape them. Those quarterbacks are Hall of Famer and three-time Super Bowl winner Troy Aikman, along with Rich Gannon and Matt Hasselbeck, both of whom guided their teams to Super Bowl appearances.
 
Among their observations:

Sam Darnold heart to heart

When Darnold came to Carolina in 2021, then-coach Matt Rhule was looking for a thorough assessment of the quarterback and reached out to Gannon, a straight-talking former league MVP who had studied the player as a CBS analyst. Gannon often worked Jets games.

Ball security had been an issue for Darnold at USC, where he had 36 turnovers — 22 interceptions and 14 fumbles — in 27 games.

“I had called Sam’s games when he was young and I was convinced this was not going to work out,” Gannon said. “He had those turnovers at USC and he brought that same behavior with him to the Jets. They should have sat his [butt] down his first year. He wasn’t ready to play. He was careless with the ball. When you have bad habits as a young player, oftentimes they’re hard to break. That was the first six years with this guy.”

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Gannon had a long conversation with Rhule and told him Darnold had never gotten “The Talk,” an unvarnished conversation about how it’s either protect the football or say goodbye to your career.

The seasoned pro was speaking from experience.

“I was in the league for seven years — six in Minnesota and one in Washington — and I had never gotten the talk,” Gannon said.

Read more: NFL wild-card playoff picks: Can Chargers, Rams pull off a Los Angeles sweep?

It wasn’t until he arrived in Kansas City in 1995 that a coach delivered that to him.

“I was at my very first mini-camp with the Chiefs,” Gannon said. “I didn’t even know Marty Schottenheimer. My very first practice, I got like eight reps in a seven-on-seven period. I went seven of eight. I was spinning it. Footwork, great. Decisions, check. Accuracy, check. Everything perfect.

“I throw one crossing route to a tight end — I don’t think it was Tony Gonzalez — and I hit him right in the chest. Perfect throw. Goes right up in the air and gets picked off by the safety. Perfect throw.”

Gannon walked off the field and stood on the sideline. Schottenheimer made a beeline for him.

“I’m thinking this guy’s coming down to give me a fist bump like, ‘Dude, you’re awesome,’” the quarterback recalled. “He comes walking up to me and he was dead serious in a stern way. He goes, ‘Hey, let me tell you something. If you turn the ball over here, you won’t play here.’ He didn’t say you won’t start here. He said you won’t play here.

“I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I called my wife that night and was like, ‘You’re not going to believe what just happened.’ But the point was made, and it was reiterated over and over. If you turn the ball over — I don’t care if you’re Joe Montana — you ain’t playing here.

At Rhule’s request, Gannon spoke to Darnold. The two quarterbacks had a phone call that lasted 1½ hours, and Gannon told him the Schottenheimer story. In a way, they had The Talk.

Although Gannon is not saying he had a role in Darnold’s current success, he does believe the quarterback has made significant strides in the way he protects the football.

“We need to see more of Sam,” he said. “But you have to be encouraged by the fact that there’s a lot of consistency in his game this year. That’s what was missing in the past.”

Winning over the locker room

Mayfield and Darnold have been discarded and disregarded. And they have revived their careers after that. Teammates notice that stuff, and they respect it.

For that matter, Lions quarterback Jared Goff has felt cast aside, too. Despite getting to a Super Bowl with Goff, the Rams pulled off a quarterback swap with Detroit to acquire Matthew Stafford, who wound up helping them win a Super Bowl.

“I think in a way Goff’s teammates in Detroit were like, ‘Dang, bro, I feel for you,’” Hasselbeck said. “Then he pulled himself out of it. And then it’s like, ‘I respect the hell out of that.’ I think they respect what Sam Darnold has gone through. They respect what Baker has gone through.

Read more: Rams are playoff confident: ‘We see ourselves as a really big Super Bowl contender’

“Because most of the locker room has had to deal with that in some way, either as a player, in life or whatever. And you just respect that. Earning respect of your teammates as a quarterback is just as important as completing passes.”

Aikman pointed out there’s an important caveat to that: It’s not just about respecting someone who has gone through hardships, but admiring the bounce-back.

“If you’re one of these guys who struggles and you continue to struggle, it doesn’t much matter,” Aikman said. “If you’re not playing at a high level, people in the locker room, they might respect you but they’re not going to want you on the field.”

Location, location, location

Aikman was on the sideline for Darnold’s pro-day workout at USC. Even in the drizzle of a rainy day, the quarterback was dropping the ball right into the hands of his receivers. That really impressed the three-time Super Bowl winner, because Aikman always had problems throwing a wet football.

“I would have 100% canceled the workout and just said, ‘We’ll do it another day,’” said Aikman, who will be in the ESPN “Monday Night Football” booth to call the Vikings-Rams game. “Instead, he threw in a pretty good downpour and threw the ball exceptionally well. He moved well and all that.

“That’s a part of it. But I think too many people get enamored with the physical abilities of all quarterbacks. This guy can run. This guy can throw. That to me is way down the list of whether or not a guy’s going to be successful.

“I’ve always said the No. 1 most important quality is accuracy. You can be the greatest leader. You can be tough. You can be the smartest guy in the world. But if you can’t throw the ball where you want to throw it, shoot, nothing else matters. Ball’s on the ground.”

Baker Mayfield is proud as a peacock

Aikman has grown to appreciate the unbridled confidence of Mayfield.

“I’ve told Baker this,” he said. “When he was in college, he could be annoying if you weren’t an Oklahoma fan, watching him do all this stuff. Then you realize when I got to know him, that’s what makes him great.

“He has to have that chip on his shoulder to really get after it. Now he’s in an environment in Tampa where they believe in him, he’s got good players around him, he’s been in an offense that fits his abilities, and it all comes together.”

But swagger without substance? Doesn’t work.

A challenging road

A quarterback has to produce and, as Aikman says, that takes a relentless resilience and ability to handle extreme pressure coming from every angle.

This season, Aikman spoke to Chicago Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams on a video call and gave him something of a pep talk. Aikman too had some turbulent times early in his career with the Dallas Cowboys.

“It’s hard on these guys,” Aikman said. “A first-year player’s one thing, but think about what Sam’s been through. Now you’re seven years into your career and you’ve bounced around. Or Baker had bounced around. One tough rookie season is expected. But when you start having multiple years and you’re not winning, you’re going from one organization to the other.”

It’s not all about landing that incredibly lucrative contract, not when the losses are accumulating.

“It really doesn’t matter how much money these guys make,” Aikman said. “When you’re struggling and the team’s not winning and you’ve got the hopes of a city resting on your shoulders and they don’t feel like you’re coming through for them, it’s not a fun existence. Or it shouldn’t be.

“If anyone’s OK with that, they probably shouldn’t be your quarterback.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.