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According to AZCardinals.com staffer Darren Urban, those same descriptions go for his brief time with wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who gave Kolb a huge hug when the two met each other in the locker room Friday. Kolb had come to Arizona for a private throwing session with Fitzgerald during the lockout, something Kolb had to consider a tryout of sorts.
“I guess I’d be lying if I didn’t say a little bit,” he acknowledged, adding “every day is going to feel like that.”
It's safe to say Kolb passed the audition. It's also safe to say the Cardinals' coaching staff feels equally at ease with Kolb.
"With the quarterback emphasis in this league, we needed to add someone to the competition,” offensive coordinator Mike Miller said. “You just talk to him for a couple of minutes and you feel that presence he carries.
“You like his knowledge of the game, the way he can process information, his accuracy, his release, his toughness. Those are the things you are looking for.”
They must have liked all of that a lot.
At least enough to deal cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and a 2012 second-round pick to secure his services. Oh. And there's five-year, $63 million contract with a reported $22 million guaranteed.
Calling himself a “gym rat,” Kolb – the son of a football coach – chuckled when it was suggested he was the starter. Undoubtedly, what it took to get him to Arizona, including that hefty new contract with more than $20 million in guarantees, makes him a virtual lock to start.
No one will say that, though. More importantly, Kolb wants no part of such a thought process.
That's a good sign. He certainly has much to prove.
“There was a lot of pressure in every situation I’ve been thrown in so far,” he said, “so it’s nothing new for me. I look forward to the challenge. I look forward to answering a lot of critics and just playing my ball and settling in with this team and going and making a run.”
And isn't that the way it happed for Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay?
As former Packers' executive Andrew Brandt, now with the National Football Post and ESPN pointed out via Twitter, it's a similar deal to the one Rodgers' signed in 2008. Like Kolb, Rodgers had seven starts when he signed it.
Arizona Republic staffer Kent Somers noted, however, that Packers had watched Rodgers in practice and he knew their system. The Cardinals don't have that advantage.
They also have limited time to get Kolb up to speed on their system.
As for the seven games Kolb has started?
In 2009, after McNabb suffered a broken rib in Week 1 against the Panthers, Kolb became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for 300 or more yards in his first two starts. In his first game, he fell nine yards short of 400 -- primarily because the Saints scored 48 points against the Eagles in Philadelphia and Kolb and company were constantly trying to keep pace.
(Despite the yardage, Kolb's passer rating for the game was 53.2, a number low enough, Profootballtalk.com's Mike Florio suggests, "to make even Derek Anderson laugh.")
Last year, Kolb entered the season as the starter only to be supplanted by Michael Vick after a concussion in Week 1. Kolb had a chance to turn the tables when Vick missed three games but couldn't.
Kolb's passer rating for the season? 76.1.
As Florio explained, the best measure of whether a quarterback will be able to thrive at the NFL level comes after about six or seven games of his first season as a full-time starter. By then, opposing defenses have enough tape to break down his strengths and weaknesses, his tendencies and tells. If he can still thrive even after the men charged with stopping him know his game inside and out, he's the real deal.
Kolb hasn't played enough to get to that point.
And a career passer rating of 73.2 hardly constitutes "thriving" during the time that he has played.
All of which prompted Florio to sum up: "Put simply, in the all-important first year of this relationship, Kolb will have a harder time than usual providing any sort of a return on the team's investment."
I agree.
So why not a cheaper alternative like Kyle Orton?
According to Somers, the Cardinals were concerned about Orton's performance in the red zone and on third-down. Kolb, who is a bit younger, has more upside in their eyes. Plus, two teams -- the Bears and Broncos -- have been willing to part with Orton. Why?
Somers also advised readers not to underestimate Fitzgerald's influence.
Fitzgerald wasn't involved in negotiations, but he is in the last year of his contract. The Cardinals want to sign him to an extension, and the biggest hurdle in that is convincing the star wideout this team will win, and that he will get the ball.
The team thinks Kolb gives them the best opportunity to do that.
We'll spend the next few weeks assessing his chances of making good on that before moving him out of QB2 territory on our rankings.