Brian Burns recognized the “it” right away.

Everyone in the NFL is confident and competitive or else they wouldn’t have made it this far in the sport, but even among that population of Type A alpha-letes, a few manage to bring those traits to a different level and stand out.

Burns, who likes to think he has that kind of drive, said he is always on the lookout for folks with such an attitude and has spotted them only a few times in his career.

It’s a short list.

Baker Mayfield, a teammate of his for a brief time in Carolina, had “an extreme competitive drive,” he said. So did another former Panthers teammate, Christian McCaffrey.

“Those are the guys who compete in anything and everything they do and they don’t like to lose,” Burns told Newsday this past week. “I feel like Jaxson [Dar

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