CLEVELAND, Ohio -- When you've been burned, it's natural to avoid the flame.

But the last thing Browns decision-makers, or fans, should do is use the failure of a past Browns quarterback to cast aspersions on a potential Browns quarterback. You know how the NFL works -- scouts and front office types put players in boxes, find easy reference points and can't find a way to offer fresh analysis.

But vague comparisons in playing style and personality, a general geographic similarity and some shared physical traits doesn't mean one quarterback is just like another.

So let's stop saying Josh Allen is the next Brock Osweiler.

Both are big gunslinger types with the frame and arm to make scouts go gaga. Osweiler was 6-foot-7 and 242 pounds when he declared for the 2012 NFL Draft. Allen checked in at 6-foot-5 and 237 pounds at the Senior Bowl.

That's one point. Here's another. They're both white. And you know what scouts think about big white quarterbacks.

Heart emoji. ("Hey, he can be the next Roethlisberger!")

Then there's the map. Osweiler played at Arizona State. That's in Arizona. If you look at the United States, Arizona is waaaaay over on the left, tucked in between New Mexico and California.

Allen? He's a left side of the map guy, too. He played at Wyoming. Wyoming is practically right above Arizona. Hop in your car on Arizona State's campus in Tempe, drive northeast through Utah and Colorado and you'll hit the University of Wyoming in Laramie in 14 hours.

Just 14 hours.

So in many ways, Allen is a rare prospect. At his size, his athleticism stands out. But if you go back in the draft, you can find the same words written about Osweiler.

"His athletic ability allows him to play the position naturally and with ease. He slings the ball naturally ... his shining asset is his arm strength; he can hit nearly any NFL-caliber throw at this point in his career."

That's from the NFL.com combine profile of Osweiler from 2012. You could drop it straight into Allen's profile this season.

Now read this quote from Osweiler in the Denver Post as the paper wrote about the Broncos' interest in Osweiler before the 2012 draft.

"I feel good about what I can do."

Can't you imagine Allen saying the same thing?

So Osweiler tricked the NFL into thinking he might be good as Denver took him in the second round in 2012; suckered the Houston Texans into signing him to a $72 million contract after a brief flash in half a season of work in Denver; and then wound up as professional football's first dead contract trade piece, as the Browns took him off Houston's hands for the price of a second-round pick last March.

He didn't even get to the season in Cleveland, released early last September though the Browns still had to pay him $16 million.

Sure, you can imagine Allen winding up in the same boat. But is it fair to call Allen a potential dead contract in waiting just because that's what Osweiler was? Are we going to pretend Allen said "the proof is in the film," just because Mel Kiper evaluated Allen, said he doesn't care about his lousy stats and basically said look at his film?

I won't do it. I'll evaluate Allen on his own. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I'll pretend a Browns quarterback with a brief lousy history never existed, rather than saddling this college kid with a past he has nothing to do with.

That's what Browns fans, and more importantly, John Dorsey, should do with every quarterback prospect, from Sam Darnold to Josh Rosen to Baker Mayfield, players who may or may not be compared to other Browns quarterbacks of the past themselves.

Each quarterback is his own quarterback.

So, to me, Josh Allen isn't Brock Osweiler.

He's a Wyoming quarterback with a 56.3 completion percentage against lower-level competition, an inconsistent passer with major accuracy questions and a guy who ... what, he threw for just 1,812 yards this season?

Anyway, he's Josh Allen.

He's not Brock Osweiler.

And I wish everyone would stop comparing draft quarterbacks in 2018 to Browns quarterbacks of the past.