BEREA, Ohio -- Brady Quinn, drafted by the Browns a decade ago in the first round of out Notre Dame, believes fellow Golden Domer DeShone Kizer could be the Browns' long-awaited long-term solution at the position.

"Honestly, he can be this year's Dak Prescott,'' Quinn told cleveland.com by phone Saturday. "He's got the highest ceiling to me of any of these guys going into the NFL. I think the Browns got a steal from that perspective.''

Quinn, picked by the Browns at No. 22 overall in 2007, believes Kizer has more potential than first-rounders Mitch Trubisky, Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson "because of his mechanics, his arm strength, and his athleticism for his size. I think he's incredibly intelligent and he'll be able to operate an NFL system.''

What's more, he thinks Kizer can "thrive'' right away the same way Prescott did in Dallas, where he went 13-3 last season. He's not expecting anywhere near the same record because the Browns are so far away, but he can see Kizer functioning well in Hue Jackson's offense.

"From a physical standpoint, yes,'' he said. "I can see where he comes in, takes care of the football, and makes smart decisions,'' he said. "Hue's a a great offensive playcalling coordinator and good with quarterbacks, so I feel like he can build a gameplan for DeShone to be successful. It's really going to come down to the adversity.

"It's going to come down to how he battles back in the course of a long 17-week season and how you're able to come back from back-to-back losses and get your teammates out of a funk and pick yourself back up. That's going to be the difficult part because this team is loaded with young players. Young players with talent but that doesn't mean it's all going to come together this year.''

Quinn, now an analyst for Fox, CBS and Sirius XM NFL Radio, sees Kizer battling it out with Cody Kessler for the starting job -- and having a good chance to win it.

"It's either DeShone Kizer's job or it's Cody Kessler's,'' said Quinn. "I don't see Brock Osweiler factoring into it. I don't know why Hue Jackson would want to stick him in there. But look what Hue did with Kessler last year. Six touchdowns, TDs, two interceptions, a high completion percentage. You're getting a guy in DeShone Kizer who in my opinion has more talent. He's got a bigger arm, he's more athletic and he's smart. If you're looking at the two, you've got to be excited about the upside of Hue working with DeShone Kizer.''

As for Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly saying Kizer wasn't ready on or off the field to go to the NFL, Quinn has a unique perspective because he conducted that interview for Sirius.

"People took it out of context,'' said Quinn. "He said a lot of things and they just pulled out the portion of him giving his opinion of saying he's not a finished product. He said he'd like to see him come back to school, and he also said he'd like to see him graduate. Somehow, no one talked about him saying he wanted to see DeShone get his degree.

"It's a lot harder to come back and get it. Braylon Edwards just got his Michigan degree. All of these guys aren't finished products. Mitch Trubisky goes No. 2 overall, but he's got a little bit of a cushion with Mike Glennon. Same thing with Patrick Mahomes and Alex Smith. Deshaun Watson's a little bit of a different story. But that was the consensus of this QB group, so it's not surprising that his coach would come out and say that because he was giving an honest opinion.''

Quinn also didn't have a huge problem with Kizer telling USA Today that he's got Tom Brady's brain and Cam Newton's body and that he can be the greatest QB ever.

Specifically, Kizer said, "No one else knows football the way I do. No one else is as big as I am. No one else is as powerful a runner as I am. Pat Mahomes might throw the ball 80 yards and I can only throw the ball 72, but I guarantee he can't throw an out route the way I can.

"No one else can do what I can do. And I've truly figured out in this process, if I can maximize all my potential in every aspect of the game - this is bold - I do have the ability to be the greatest quarterback to ever play. Imagine taking Brady's intellect and Brady's preparation and putting it on a guy with Cam Newton's body. Why can't I be the greatest? The only thing stopping me from it is me. That's what's driving me now."

Said Quinn: "I don't think he was trying to make the comparison to them now. I think he's smart enough to not do that, but maybe more just the sense of what type of players they were coming out of coming out of college. When you look at both of those players coming out. When you look at this draft, Mitch Trubisky talked about modeling his game after Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady.

"I wasn't surprised by what DeShone said and I wasn't surprised by the confidence he has in himself because that's kind of every quarterback in this draft. They're just not as outward or open about it as DeShone is.''

Quinn acknowledged that things were tense between Kizer and Kelly at times last year, culminating in his benching in the Stanford game after back-to-back interceptions.

"It's tough to tell (what happened),'' said Quinn. "They had a QB competition going into training camp after the season he had in 2015, after Spring ball, showcasing himself very well, so I think there was probably a little bit of frustration on both sides, from DeShone in the sense of 'why am I still having to prove myself, what more do I need to do?' and Brian Kelly's side, once the season got started, they're just looking for answers.

"They're looking for something to give the team a spark and as far as the benching, coaches try all different ways to motivate players and that's one way.''

Quinn attributes Kizer's 4-8 record to an exodus in top talent, including most of his top receivers.

"This past year, they had a lot of inexperienced guys, they had an offensive line group that wasn't as good as the year before, and even though it may sound like excuses -- look he didn't play as consistent as he did the year before -- but he still demonstrates the ability -- go put on the Texas game, to take over a game, to make all the throws, to be a true difference-maker. So much has been about the record, but that's a reflection on the entire team, coaching staff, everyone involved.''

Quinn preached patience, but "clearly, they found a guy who could potentially be their long-term solution.''