At the moment, Alex Smith might be the hottest name in the NFL speculation business, with quite a lot of teams interested in the San Francsico 49ers backup quarterback. Among those, and probably a bit more than the rest, are the always needy for a QB Cleveland Browns.

The Browns, in their current incarnation, have had just two winning seasons since 1999 and quite a few quarterbacks they weren’t too happy with. Brandon Weeden, a 29 year old rookie out of Oklahoma State, started in 15 of their 16 games in 2012, throwing for 14 touchdown passes and 17 interceptions. Weeden doesn’t look like the big thing for the Browns, who haven’t been to the postseason since 2002 and not more than five games in a season five years in a row, but he didn’t really have the finest of receiving corps to utilize.

The Browns hired Norv Turner as their new offensive coordinator after he was fired from the head coaching position at San Diego, and his arrival in Cleveland might be sign for Alex Smith to move there. Turner was Smit’s offensive coordinator at San Francisco in the 2006 season, and Smith has pretty good memories from that year, his and the team’s best until Jim Harbaugh came along.

It was a very, very friendly QB system. For Cleveland, it’s going to be a terminology change going from a West Coast system to the digits, but very, very QB friendly, big-play potential for the offense with a lot of chunk plays. He’s a great play caller. I just remember he had a great feel for the game on gameday and a great feel for what the defense was doing.

As mentioned before, Smith is looking for a new tram, and the Browns aren’t the only franchise looking for a quarterback not coming out of the draft. The Eagles will also be in the chase for Smith, who still has two more seasons left on his contract with the 49ers. The fact that he wants to leave and the team isn’t looking to spend so much money on a backup quarterback means he’s on his way out. Maybe it’ll be via trade, or maybe by letting him go before April 1 so he won’t be owed $13 million, but it looks like Smith is going to play for a different team next season, probably on the Eastern half of the nation.

Image: SFgate