Ken Dorsey was chosen by Kevin Stefanski to resurrect the career of Deshaun Watson. Both will pay a visit to Watson in Los Angeles next week to start the process. (Associated Press)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN
It’s amazing how discussion of the Browns’ offense, or their quarterback, often reverts back to Bernie Kosar.
Decades after he led the Browns to three division titles and three AFC Championship Game appearances – their last furthest advance in the NFL Super Bowl era – Kosar, now 60, is back in vogue once again via his connection with the Browns’ newest offensive coordinator, Ken Dorsey.
Dorsey starred at University of Miami 15 years after Kosar. At a time Kosar was still smarting from getting shut out of the Browns expansion ownership derby, he retreated to the U. and served time as a university trustee. Naturally invested in whomever played quarterback for his beloved Hurricanes, Kosar saw visions of his former self in Dorsey – a cerebral field general who won with brains, daring and relentless determination over physical skills.
“We had such a similar style,” Kosar told me. “He is super analytical, just like me.”
Fans from his era for decades have pined for Kosar to have some role with the Browns. Most dreamed of him coaching the team’s offense and imparting his uncanny sense to dissect defenses to the team’s quarterbacks. Alas, Kosar never wanted to coach; he wanted to own. But Dorsey just might be the next best thing in the coach’s box.
A Master’s in quarterbacking
“We’re so foundationally taught,” Kosar said of the quarterback lineage at Miami that began under legendary coach Howard Schnellenberger. “As quarterbacks, we were raised to be able to almost erase the mistakes of coaches [on the field]. So at the U. we got a Master’s program of coaching, in terms of responsibility of understanding the system.
“So for a mental, cerebral guy, that was Ken Dorsey. He had good athleticism, but real exceptional intellect. It’s like you’re taught early something good and it lives with you.”
Dorsey’s brief NFL playing career, which included an 0-3 record in 2008 as one of the Browns’ third-string QBs to start at least a game, paled to Kosar’s. But he put his football mind to use as a coach.
Dorsey entered the profession under Ron Rivera with the Carolina Panthers. His first pupil was Cam Newton, an absolute quarterback rage with incomparable size and running ability. In Dorsey’s five years as quarterbacks coach, Newton had the two best seasons of his 11-year career, earning an MVP award, and the Panthers made the playoffs four times, losing in the Super Bowl to the Denver Broncos.
From Carolina, Dorsey moved on to Buffalo, hired by Sean McDermott. He was Josh Allen’s position coach under coordinator Brian Daboll, and then was promoted to coordinator when Daboll was hired as head coach by the New York Giants.
Dorsey joined the Bills in Allen’s second season. With Daboll, he helped turn around another linebacker-sized quarterback who liked to run into an MVP candidate. Allen’s accuracy as a passer zoomed from 52.8 percent as a rookie to 58.8 percent in Dorsey’s first season and 69.2 percent the next season.
Now Dorsey has been entrusted with resurrecting the career of Deshaun Watson, another dual-threat quarterback who uses his legs, and the threat of running, to create plays out of the structure of the pocket.
The irony is that Dorsey’s pupils have been the exact opposite style quarterback that he was.
“Those guys can do things that a lot of people can’t,” Dorsey said at his introductory press conference on February 5. “And look, there’s going to be sometimes, and I’ve been through it with Cam and with Josh, where they’re going to make unbelievable plays, that everybody’s going to be like, that’s amazing.
“But then there’s going to be times that, hey, we scramble around, and we might take a sack or something like that and it’s like, well, just throw the ball. Well, sometimes there’s a give and take there, but it’s the understanding of, okay, we’ve got to make sure we’re playing smart, not conservative in terms of what we’re doing, and we’re taking chances and we’re extending plays and we’re doing things in a way that isn’t going to be detrimental for us as a team and us as an offense. It’s a balancing act there with those guys.”
Zigging when others are zagging
Kevin Stefanski talked at the NFL Combine this week of evolving as an offense and staying ahead of the constant evolution of NFL offenses.
“One thing that keeps me up at night is where’s the offensive game going,” Stefanski said. “The game of 20 years ago doesn’t resemble our current game. Just think of shotgun. How simple that is, right? Shotgun has shot up a ton in the last 15 years.
“You look at every trend throughout the league and what are people doing a lot of. And then, what can we zig while everybody else zags?”
Now this is the ultimate irony in what confronts Dorsey:
Watson is a shotgun quarterback who likes to create plays outside the pocket, much like Newton and Allen. It’s the modern NFL passing game, a product of the college game.
And yet, Kosar marveled at the Browns’ old-style, play-action passing game with pocket quarterback Joe Flacco at the end of last season. It was the perfect zig as everyone else was zagging. The modern defenses built to run with multiple receivers and chase quarterbacks outside the pocket were flummoxed by the Browns' multiple tight end formations and Flacco's deft play-faking.
“It was so beautiful,” Kosar said. “Execution-wise it was phenomenal. Some of those games are really artistic. There was such beauty in some of the ways we attacked people offensively.
“If Deshaun adds to that his game … man.
"Playing under center also will help you get back into the flow of a game. There’s only so much you can do in a no-back, spread formation. But with checkdowns and extra protection and the ability to do play-action, you can really get yourself reacclimated.
“It was core, fundamental football and it wasn’t rocket science what we were doing. Actually, it would be an addition to Deshaun’s game that’s not really hard to implement.
“Boy, they should just add to what we did at the end of the year.”
Could Dorsey actually connect with Watson in a way that Stefanski could not and wean him off the shotgun and pistol and RPOs and zone read options?
I heard Sean Payton say something this week.
“There are still some things that are paramount today. At some point teams are going to make you win from the pocket,” Payton said.
Stefanski has talked of “putting this offense back together” a lot since the 2023 season ended. I wonder if he’s trying to fix something that’s not broke.
Dorsey will have to figure that out.