Browns: Rob Ninkovich and Bart Scott have trash takes about Baker Mayfield
By Chad Porto

ESPN’s Rob Ninkovich and Bart Scott proved to the audience on Friday that they don’t actually know too much about Baker Mayfield or the Cleveland Browns.
Say what you will about the Browns and their play against the Jets, but put it in the proper context. That’s something that ESPN’s Rob Ninkovich and Bart Scott were incapable of doing on Friday’s First Take. Both of the former linebackers blamed Baker Mayfield for the Jets’ loss and then said that if the Browns fall against the Steelers that Mayfield would be run out of town. Folks, we have a contender for the most-wrong thing of 2021 already.
Firstly, Mayfield wasn’t at fault for the Jets game. Two starting and a third starting-caliber offensive linemen were out for the game. Then the top four wide receivers were all out as well. When you have seven guys out for a game, nearly all of whom were ruled out less than 24 hours before the game, what do you expect to have happened? It’s never happened to anyone in the history of the game. Yet, we’re back to the “Mayfield is trash” takes. It’s like extenuating circumstances don’t exist with these “analysts”.
To hear Scott say, “This falls on Baker Mayfield to…uhhh….really affect the game with his arm and not his legs. Last week you think about how Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt were shut down and it was put in Baker Mayfield’s hands.”
I know Scott had a lot of years of getting his teeth knocked down his throat by the Patriots, so maybe we can excuse some of that nonsense but really? Why did Chubb and Hunt get shut down? Was it because Kendall Lamm and Nick Harris are terrible starters? Did they maybe have something to do with Mayfield getting blasted all game by the Jets?
Naw, that can’t be it. Also, gotta love Scott throwing Lamar Jackson under the bus by saying he “came off the toilet.” It’s almost like he doesn’t listen to people and just makes up his own nonsense.
Ninkovich, however, is far less entertaining with his take. Throughout Scott’s turn, you can see Ninkovich salivating, just waiting for his turn to dig into the Browns. You can see it with every obnoxious nod of the head as Scott spewed his nonsense. Ninkoovich, however, would top it.
“I think they’re, uh, mentally in the tank,” Ninkovich begins with a doozy. He doesn’t know the Browns or their players but they’re in the tank? Ooohweee….”It’s going to be hard after you lose to the Jets when you had control of your destiny, you could’ve gone out there and just win, that’s all you gotta do, just win, and you have to run the football, you don’t put it in Baker’s hands, we’ve seen him fumble the football away more than one time.”
First, great run-on sentence. Second, Ninkovich should tune into ESPN more, because he’d know the Browns STILL control their own destiny. All they still need to do is win. Also, Mayfield has won games and nearly won games for the Browns on numerous occasions this year. So, what is Ninkovich talking about? How is it that former football players don’t know that when the offensive line falls apart, you can’t run the ball? How do they not realize the Browns were down to third-string and practice squad players? You can’t talk about how you “need” skill players like Odell Beckham and then turn around and say something like “Baker should have found a way.”
“If you lose this game and they miss the playoffs, they’re not giving him (Mayfield) that fifth-year option. See-ya later, man,” Ninkovich finished.
Nothing beats out Scott though when he says Mayfield was given “everything to succeed,” and then goes on to list Cleveland’s defense.
Over on Fox’s Undisputed? Greg Jennings absolutely trusts Mayfield and claims “…he’s done a terrific job all season.” The trio of LaVar Arrington, Michael Vick, and Jennings gave a far more tangent and logical response to the Steelers and Browns game. So it’s good to know not all of the national media talking heads speak from both sides of their mouth.
The New Cleveland Browns All Decades Team (1999-2020). dark. Next