DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Browns Hire Ken Dorsey as OC

He's cerebral!

we'll see who calls plays I guess

Hide your laptops.

Interesting hire considering the Bills fired him midseason and improved offensively.

The Bills fired him due to the Offense turnovers rate

Wasn't that the problem this season for the Browns offense?

Makes no sense

Cleveland Browns hiring Ken Dorsey as offensive coordinator
Chris Easterling
Akron Beacon Journal


BEREA — The Browns are bringing home a former quarterback of theirs to be their new offensive coordinator.

Ken Dorsey will be hired as the Browns' new offensive coordinator, a source confirmed for the Beacon Journal. He spent the last year and a half as the Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator before being fired following a Week 10 loss to the Denver Broncos dropped them to 6-5 on the season.

Dorsey, 42, was a quarterback for the Browns from 2006-08.

The Browns' offensive coordinator post had been open since Alex Van Pelt, who had been with head coach Kevin Stefanski in that role since 2020, was let go days after the AFC wild card loss to the Houston Texans. Van Pelt was part of an offensive staff shake-up that also included running back Stump Mitchell and tight ends coach T.C. McCartney.

Dorsey interviewed for the job last week. He was one of five interviews the Browns conducted for the job, along with Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, Houston Texans quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson, ex-Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Brian Johnson and Seattle Seahawks offensive line coach Andy Dickerson.

Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey walks the sideline prior to an NFL football game, Oct. 30, 2022, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Bryan Bennett)
Former Carolina Panthers assistant head coach/running backs coach Duce Staley will replace Mitchell. The Browns and former University of Alabama offensive coordinator Tommy Rees were working toward a deal for him to be the next tight ends coach, with additional responsibilities in the development of the pass game.

The Browns also hired Houston Texans defensive line coach Jacques Cesaire for the same position on Saturday. He replaces Ben Bloom, who may still be re-assigned within the defensive staff.

Will Kevin Stefanski give up play-calling duties to Ken Dorsey?

Now comes Dorsey to fill the last, and arguably most important, of those vacancy. It's a hire that could also have a seismic impact on the Browns from a game-operations perspective with regards to the age-old question of "Who's calling the plays?"

Stefanski had called the plays over his first four seasons with the Browns. A source did not say if he was going to cede those duties to Dorsey.

While Stefanski was not directly asked that question in his end-of-season press conference the day after the Houston loss — and hasn't spoken since the staff changes were made — general manager Andrew Berry was asked about it during his season wrap-up availability.

"So it's a good question," Berry said. "I'd say No. 1, that's something that we always talk about every offseason in kind of the self-assessment. Part of that depends on where we land with staff and what Kevin's preferences are. Ultimately that's going to be his decision as he constructs a staff. We've mentioned multiple times, I think that's one of Kevin's strengths, but how that operates from year to year, that's ultimately something that we reassess."

Ken Dorsey takes fall for Buffalo Bills' struggles early this season

The 42-year-old Dorsey was fired during this season after the Bills suffered a loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 10. The Bills offense, at the time, was ranked seventh in the league in total yards, seventh in passing yards, eighth in points scored and 13th in rushing, but had struggled as part of a 2-4 stretch.

Quarterback Josh Allen, at the time Dorsey was fired, was tied for first in the league in touchdown passes (19), second in completions (246) and attempts (350), third in completion percentage (70.3%), fourth in passing yards (2,600 yards) and 12th in passer rating (96.6). However, he did throw a league-high 11 interceptions in that time as well.

The Bills struggles at times to consistently move the ball during that early-season malaise, especially on the ground. However, their biggest problem were the 18 turnovers, which was tied for second in the NFL behind the Browns' 19 through Week 10.

Dorsey's interim replacement, Joe Brady, was given the full-time role earlier Sunday. Buffalo finished the season fourth in total yards, seventh in rushing and eighth in passing, while they turned the ball over 28 times.

Allen finished with a league-high 18 interceptions. Buffalo won six of their final seven in the regular-season, including their final five, while Allen finished 11th in completion percentage (66.5%), fourth in yards (4,306 yards), tied for fifth in touchdown passes (29) and 16th in passer rating (92.2).

Dorsey was in his second season as the Bills offensive coordinator, having been promoted from quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator to the post when Brian Daboll was hired as the head coach of the New York Giants early in 2022. He had been the Buffalo quarterbacks coach since 2019.

Buffalo was a top-eight offense in multiple categories in Dorsey's first season as offensive coordinator. The Bills were second in total yards, seventh in rushing yards, sixth in passing yards and fourth in scoring, while being the most efficient third-down offense in the league.

Prior to going to Buffalo, Dorsey's NFL coaching resume included time as Panthers quarterbacks coach from 2013-17. He also served as a pro scout from 2011-12 with Carolina.

The former University of Miami (Fla.) quarterback played six seasons in the NFL. His first three years were with the San Francisco 49ers, and he then spent his final three seasons as a player with the Browns.

https://www.beaconjournal.com/story...s-new-offensive-coordinator/72366694007/

It is an absolute MUST that he call plays.

Browns fans think Stefanski is a good play caller. He’s not. He’s a good schemer. Two completely different things.

Why am I uninspired by this hire?

Because they fired van pelt for no reason and were left scrambling to recover and rushed into a decision?

Wow the Browns still aren't any closer to
Winning the AFC North. Didn't Dorsey QB a game for
The Browns 15 years ago? This guy wasn't even
In demand to be a OC. It's milk and cookies move
By the Browns front office.

Good point! I am not seeing it at this time, but the coaching staff has infinitely more knowledge then I do....

I think it’s a good hire. He’’s bringing in different perspectives and experience in different offenses. I think we’ll be fine, but changes at that level in the NFL always bring some kind of unexpected consequence.

Looking at his coaching career I think what got Ken Dorsey the Browns Offensive Coordinator job was he spent 4 years as Cam Newton's QB Coach during the years Cam was a perennial MVP candidate. Then he moved to Buffalo to be Josh Allen's QB Coach. Was promoted to Bills Offensive Coordinator position. Josh Allen also had some very productive years working with Dorsey. I think the Browns FO probably likes Dorsey's familiarity with working with 2 dynamic playmaking QB's vs the traditional pocket passers that turn their back from the defense.

3 things to know about the Browns’ new offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey
Published: Jan. 28, 2024, 7:58 p.m.


By Ashley Bastock, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Browns took care of a major piece of offseason business on Sunday when they hired Ken Dorsey to replace Alex Van Pelt as offensive coordinator.

Dorsey, 42, interviewed in Cleveland last week; but did you know he already has a history with the Browns?


Here are three things to know about the Browns’ new offensive coordinator:


1. He was a Browns quarterback from 2006-08

Dorsey spent the first three years of his NFL playing career as a quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers -- they selected him in the seventh round of the 2003 draft.

He wound up in Cleveland in 2006, however, as a part of the 49ers’ trade for quarterback Trent Dilfer.

In Cleveland, he worked as a backup behind Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson, and later, Brady Quinn.

He made three starts in Cleveland, all coming towards the end of the 2008 season after Anderson was injured in a Week 13 game against the Colts. Dorsey started the next three games once Anderson was placed on injured reserve. Dorsey suffered a concussion in the penultimate game, and was replaced as starter by Bruce Gradkowski in the season finale that year.

In total in Cleveland, he completed 43 of 92 passes for 370 yards with zero touchdowns and seven interceptions.



2. Ohio State fans will remember his playing days for this reason

Dorsey left the University of Miami as the winningest quarterback in school history with a record of 38-2 (1999-2002). He led the Hurricanes to a national championship in 2001.

Ohio State fans will remember him of course for his performance in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl, in which Ohio State won the national title in double overtime. In that game Dorsey passed for 296 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions.



3. He comes to Cleveland after an interesting tenure in Buffalo

Dorsey was fired in November by Bills head coach Sean McDermott with Buffalo falling to .500 (5-5) following a 24-22 loss to the Broncos. It was their fourth loss in six games, and quarterback Josh Allen committed three of the Bills’ four turnovers in that game. It also marked the sixth straight game Buffalo was held to under 26 points.

With Buffalo’s playoff hopes slipping away and Allen leading the NFL with 11 interceptions at the time, quarterbacks coach Joe Brady took over the offense and helped guide the Bills to a 6-1 mark down the stretch of the regular season, a run that included five straight wins. The Bills went on to win the AFC East and beat the Steelers in the wild card round 31-17 before falling to the Super Bowl-bound Chiefs in the divisional round, 27-24.

When Dorsey was fired, Allen was also leading the league with 19 touchdown passes, and was second in both completions (246) and attempts (350).

It was Dorsey’s second season as coordinator after Allen favored him to succeed Brian Daboll when the latter left to take the Giants head coaching job. After Dorsey was promoted in 2022, he helped lead the Bills to a 13-3 record, and a second-place finish in both yards per game (397.6) and points per game (28.4).

Buffalo lost in the divisional round that year, but Allen had one of his best career statistical seasons, finishing 7th with 4,283 yards, tying for second alongside Joe Burrow with 35 TD passes, and finishing eighth with a 96.6 rating.


https://www.cleveland.com/browns/20...ew-offensive-coordinator-ken-dorsey.html

Have anything to do with

Frye Anderson and Quinn ?

Hope his coaching skills are improvements over his playing skills as his times in Cleveland

I agree OCD. When Dorsey played here I said I thought he would be a good coach. He has been and will be.

Good coaches are mostly never good pro players....in pretty much all sports. Having one skill set doesn't mean you have the other.

Dorsey needed a job, KS will be calling plays, so he needed an “offensive coordinator” in theory, one who won’t try to be in charge. I’m like ‘whatever’ on this hire.

I find this fascinating. By most accepted measures, Allen was absolutely humming (except for the interceptions) up until Dorsey was fired. Then after, Buffalo starts winning again, but Allen's stats have dropped off (except for INTs, in which he's still out in front of the league).

Based on that, I wonder if they're brining him in to basically be a glorified QB coach (that's maybe me being overdramatic and simplistic). I didn't watch Buffalo and don't know their issues (thought I heard their D was bad for a while due to injuries).

I could have typed this.

Stefanski is a great play-caller. If this helps keep everyone on the same page with game prep / planning and he can meld Watson's style into a more fluid Stefanski offense, then it's a great hire. Time will tell.

Hopefully Dorsey can be the Yang to Kevin's Yin.

Just me personally, I think we have seen times and games when KS was a great play caller and game manager. I think we've seen equally as many games or more where he lacked the ability to make adjustments, got too cute in predictable ways and made bad in game management decisions.

This last season seemed on balance to be a major move in more consistently being 'good' to 'very good' - but it also falls into another pattern we've seen with KS: Outperforming in seasons with lower expectations because of injuuries (and previously with Covid) - but arguably lower performances when the team had high expectations.

I'm left hoping that with KS it's a maturation / improvement situation and he's evolving and getting better in which case we see a continuation of the 'good'. While I agree Dorsey is an uninspiring choice on the face of it - there's also no reason to believe he can't improve and learn. Watch this space.

One thing is for sure. Dorsey's temperment is a lot more like Schwartz than AVP's was.

Tell that to Van Pelt.

Agreed and I believe Dorsey will help. He's helped those QB's you spoke of and he will help DW. We do need a couple of new WR's. My buddy is a Packers fan and they have some good young WR's. I checked their roster and noticed none of them are 1st round picks. A couple are 4-6 round picks, so it is possible to draft good ones later on. Because we don't have a 1st round pick our scouting department has to step up to find talent in the later rounds.

I have mixed feelings about this. My preference was the guy from Houston, truth be told.

On one hand, you have the Bills looking like night and day after Dorsey was fired. That's hard to get over.

On the other hand, statistically, they were great across the board on offense.

I do remember everyone talking about how smart he was, with the combined IQ between him and Krenzel in the National Title game. They also talked about how he was a bench coach when he was here on the Browns, and how there were high expectations for him given his intellect and ability to dissect plays and schemes. They said the same thing about Adam Gase though, too.

One potential benefit of him vs AVP, though is that AVP was pretty much working with Aaron Rodgers, IIRC, for most of his career. That's a very different QB type than Watson. Newton and Allen are more similar to Watson, and Dorsey had good stats out of them (albeit the turnovers from Allen).

I wish I was a fly on the wall during their interview. I'd be curious to see how he addressed everything, because I'm sure they brought up his time in Buffalo and what he would do the same and what he would do differently. He obviously said enough to convince them.

Interesting read from The Ringer.

By nearly every offensive metric, aside from Allen turning the ball over, The Bills were better offensively under Dorsey than they were under Joe Brady.

https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2024/...ills-derrick-henry-jamaal-williams-lions

I have no idea why Dorsey was fired in BUF this season, whether it was fully justified or that he was a scapegoat for a larger issue(s). I don't follow the Bills like I do the Browns, so I'm not privy to what is most likely a very nuanced, layered situation.... like they all are.

IMO, however, Dorsey can easily be credited to various degrees with the development of Josh Allen as he's been is QB coach, passing game coordinator, and OC since 2019 (not all at the same time, but three different roles). It's funny, I have watched a decent amount of Bills' games this year and one of the issues I thought was different about Allen from past years was his lack of running the ball, more specifically, a decrease of designed running plays. I didn't see anything different year-to-year outside of a maybe uptick in INTs, which is five more than his average of 13 per year. But I usually blame the QB for those....or the receiver if it is tipped or something like that.

If I had to guess, the main reason for Dorsey's firing was his play calling and I do recall situational things that surfaced over the course of the year that put him under the microscope or that he was too predictable. That said, I do think his development of Josh Allen is the main reason why we hired him. I don't see this hire as one where Stefanski defers play calls to him, but rather leans on his ability to work with QBs. That said, we'll see because Cleveland.com apparently is reporting that the Browns are seriously considering giving him the play-calling duties. I would think that would have been hashed out prior to accepting the job which leads me to believe that already have that answer between them.

I texted my buddy who is a huge Bills fan and follow them much like many do here. He literally replied and I was typing this. He said...It (the firing) seemed warranted. Dorsey did a poor job at making adjustments and didn't rely on the Bills' offensive strengths (Josh's legs, etc.). He was certainly blamed when things weren't going great mid-season. It was a bad year for injuries, many on the D, but the offense was supposed to be THE strength of that team.

Yeah, I saw similar stats along with some others that indicated the Bills' O performed better with Dorsey over Brady.

Me too. I think Dorsey was mostly a scapegoat for an offense that was simply not executing and a QB making dumb decisions and dumber mistakes. I even went back and looked at each loss. Also of note during that stretch was the near incredible efficiency of the opposing QB and six losses by an average of 4 points.

Yep. And this is what I was screaming for the final two years of Joe (I'd have to see a murder in real time to change the look on my face) Woods.

"If Stefanski is good cop, he has got to find a bad cop." He did in Schwartz, maybe the same in Dorsey. Everyone can't be Mr. Nice Guy.

Thanks Memph. Initially, I figured Stefanski would retain the playcalling, given that it appears he is still putting the offensive staff together, at least from what we've seen so far. That leads me to believe Dorsey was going to be just another "cog" on the offensive side. Hell if I know, though, since what you said makes perfect sense.

As far as Allen goes, I don't know how much to apportion those INTs to Dorsey's mentoring or playcalls. A lot of them just seemed big-time boneheaded.

Dorsey is going to get his chance to see if he can help the Browns offense perform at a playoff level.

He's the guy that Stefanski wanted and now it's up to Stefanski and Dorsey to produce.

As Browns fan, I refuse to lower my expectations...I expect the Browns to be competing in the playoffs next season and I will not accept excuses.

As opposed to performing at this year's playoff level?

Why?

Before the season started we read all sorts of reports the Browns O was going to be different. Even during the preseason we were reading about guys like Moore playing all over the field.

For whatever reason, that didn't happen, and I don't think that falls of Stefanski even if he calls plays.

The O and Watson never seemed to mesh, and that was on AVP. He wasn't just some government lackie there to collect a paycheck.

Dorsey is schooled in an open, shotgun based O that never materialized last season. We wanted that but it didn't happen. We were forced back to playing a 20th century type O.

No matter the reason why Dorsey was relieved of his duties, the Bills had a wide open, shotgun based O that fit Allens game.

With Dorsey, I expect we will see the type of O we were supposed to see last year. Time to move in to 21st century football since a quarter of the century is nearly over.

Improved some. Their passing game was more hit and miss, but they did start running the ball more. Stephon Diggs was trash once Joe Brady took over.

The big difference was that Brady had Allen running A LOT more. It helps the offense stay in the field, but I'm not sure sending your prized franchise QB into the fray to get hit is better in the long run.