Darnold Explains Relationship with Mayfield & Why He Never Demanded a Trade

Competition is natural at just about every position in football. Having competition at quarterback is oftentimes heated and can make for an awkward preseason and training camp.

How so?

Well, because there's only one starting spot and if you don't win the job, you're probably not going to play. At other positions, there are multiple starting spots and if you lose out on that, you can still be rotated in. Not at quarterback.

We've seen some very uncomfortable quarterback rooms over the years when teams draft a new quarterback or add another via trade. Heck, it happened earlier this offseason when the Tennessee Titans drafted Malik Willis in the third round. Ryan Tannehill said that it wasn't his job to mentor Willis which came across as if he didn't like the fact the team took Willis in the draft.

Panthers quarterback Sam Darnold made sure that heading into training camp there wouldn't be any bad blood or awkward feelings between he and the recently acquired Baker Mayfield.

"It's important to have healthy competition. And I don't think anyone here likes feeling awkward or being in an awkward situation. When I heard the news, I took a couple days to decompress and absorb all the information that I could. Then I reached out to Baker and told him about the throwing session that we had. Me and him have been very cordial. It's been very good so far."

When the Browns traded for Deshaun Watson, Mayfield made it clear that he did not want to stick around in Cleveland. He wanted out and rightfully so. When Darnold was asked if he ever demanded a trade, he immediately shot that down and said that it never entered his mind.

"First of all, I'm not in the position to be able to do that and that's just not who I am," said Darnold.

Sam knows his place and that's a good thing. He understands that his best chance to win a starting job and potentially his only chance, is here in Carolina. Asking to be traded wouldn't do him any favors, especially if there are no takers. Then it just becomes an even more awkward situation. He's going to embrace the challenge and do everything in his power to put himself in a position to win the job, which is all you can ask for.

"Sam is just a tremendous person. The way he handled this in terms of the approach he took was team first," head coach Matt Rhule said. "At the end of the day, Sam has taken a very stoic approach of I'm going to control what I can control and I can't control anything else other than how I play. He's got a chance to go out there and compete and I think that's all he wants. I expect Sam to have a really good camp."

On day one of training camp, Sam Darnold took the first-team reps while Baker Mayfield ran with the twos. The two will flip on Thursday, giving Mayfield a chance to run with the ones.

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