What's Adam Schefter 'Reporting' About Browns Dead Trade for Brandon Aiyuk?

Adam Schefter, the ESPN "insider,'' does his very worst work when he is asked to go oft-script, to ad-lib, to do something besides simply cut-and-paste to Twitter the texts he gets from agents and from GMs.

And his very worst work is on display now as he finds himself reporting on the Cleveland Browns' involvement in a trade for then-unhappy San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk.

We say "then-unhappy'' because on Thursday, the All-Pro wide receiver came to terms with the Niners on an extension worth $30 million APY. But up until Thursday, other teams were in on the bidding.

The Steelers were serious. The Commanders probably were as well.

And the Browns? We know they made their bid ... and we know that Aiyuk himself blocked the move because for whateve reason, he did not want to come to Cleveland.

And now along comes Schefter to "report'' that the Browns getting Aiyuk was pretty much a done deal.

Except, of course, it wasn't.

“On Thursday, August 1,'' Schefter said on TV, "I thought a trade to Cleveland was happening. It was imminent.''

Hey, that's a heck of a story.

But then Schefter added, "and then it didn’t get done."

Um, yeah. We know.

Schefter's tale paints a picture of him being someone with inside knowledge ... except that it's inside knowledge that was wrong, thus accomplishing nothing but fanning the flames of an Aiyuk-to-Cleveland story that hasn't been a "story'' for almost a month now.

Why is this coming up now? Because it was live TV. Schefter was required to venture off-script ... his danger zone.