Written by Thomas Moore

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Kevin Kolb? Really?

The Kevin Kolb who was 2-6 as a starter for the Arizona Cardinals this season? This is who the Cleveland Browns should be looking at for quarterback in 2012?

(Pounding head on the table).

OK, let’s back up a minute.

The speculation that the Browns might be interested in Kolb began earlier in the week when The Plain Dealer’s Tony Grossi wrote that if the Cardinals decided to part ways with Kolb after one year, he would be a good fit in Cleveland because he was originally drafted in Philadelphia by current Browns general manager Tom Heckert and played under current coach Pat Shurmur.

Because of his time with the Eagles, Kolb knows – or at least is more advanced in – the West Coast offense than current Browns quarterback Colt McCoy. But presumably not as much as quarterback Seneca Wallace, but Seneca only cares about Seneca, so ...

On the surface there is some logic to the argument for Kolb, although it seems like a big assumption to think the Cardinals will release him just six months after giving Kolb $21.5 million in guaranteed money. And it sounds like Kolb expects to return to the Cardinals, telling The Arizona Republic after the team’s final game that he expects to battled Josh Skelton for the starting position in training camp.

There is one area where Kolb would fit in with the Browns, however, as the Cardinals went from Week 2 until Week 17 without scoring a touchdown in the first quarter. Arizona scored on its opening drive in Week 1 and on a 37-yard drive in Week 2, then went dry in the first quarter until the final week of the season, according to azcardinals.com. The team only scored 36 first-quarter points all season.

Sound familiar, Browns fans?

There is also the very real possibility that the fifth-year quarterback from Houston just isn’t that good. Kolb completed 57 percent of his passes with nine touchdowns and eight interceptions this year – and that was with throwing to Larry Fitzgerald. (We just checked the roster and the Browns don’t have Larry Fitzgerald).

Plus you have to wonder why the Eagles decided to give $40 million in guaranteed money to a quarterback, Michael Vick, who has only played a full season once in his NFL career rather than keep a quarterback they nurtured on their roster for four years.

If Kolb is released – again, a big if – and the Browns want to take a look at him on a one-year, very team friendly contract, that may not be all that bad if they think he is a talented quarterback worth looking at.

But if they are only looking at him because he played with the Eagles then they’ve lost us.

Ever since the team returned in 1999, they have been so obsessed with trying to copy another team’s success that the Browns haven’t developed their own identity.

Starting with Carmen Policy and Dwight Clark, who wanted to turn Berea into San Francisco east, to Butch Davis (Miami north), Phil Savage and Romeo Crennel (a doomed Baltimore/New England hybrid), to Eric Mangini (a hot mess of the worst traits of the Patriots blended with the worst ex-Jets available), the Browns have continually been chasing the roadrunner down the same desert road with the same result – a crash into the canyon below.

The Browns need to focus on one thing – getting the best football players that fit into their current system. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t the way the Patriots do it, or any other team, the Browns need to come up with the Browns way of doing things.

The Steelers aren’t good because coach Mike Tomlin brought along a bunch of washed up Vikings and Buccaneers with him; they’re successful because they have a plan and stick to it.

Same with the Ravens, as general manager Ozzie Newsome clearly has a feel for what the team needs and acts accordingly on draft day.

And with the Steelers and the Ravens being the team’s biggest competition, it’s vital that the Browns continue rebuilding the team in the right way – through the draft and avoiding the quick fix.

If that means they like someone like Kolb as a player – and nothing more – then so be it.

But if Heckert finds the map left behind by the previous regimes and decides to head down that desert road, everyone in Berea better pack a parachute.