As a player, Ken Dorsey is a member of the Browns' QB40 fraternity. As a coach, he now has joined their fired offensive coordinator club.
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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.
Takeaways from Browns assistant coach firings …
The Browns’ ill-fated decision to change their offense to fit the wants of quarterback Deshaun Watson cost two coaches their jobs on Sunday.
But the persons who conceived the idea and sought to fix something that wasn’t broken were spared, naturally. For now.
Offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and offensive line coach Andy Dickerson were fired soon as the club returned from the 35-10 loss in Baltimore, which wrapped up a 3-14 train-wreck of a season.
Dorsey, who was fired by the Buffalo Bills midway through the 2023 season, explicitly was hired to conform the offense to a shotgun-spread system to maximize Watson’s dual-threat abilities.
Since the Browns do everything collaboratively, it was not coach Kevin Stefanski’s decision alone -- if at all.
Alas, the whole concept was an abysmal failure from the start.
The Browns didn’t score more than 18 points in Watson’s seven starts before he suffered a season-ending Achilles tendon injury. He didn’t pass for 200 yards in any game and the Browns lost six of their first seven games.
When Dorsey was given play-calling duties after Jameis Winston took over at quarterback, there was a brief burst of downfield pass offense and a giant increase in turnovers. The Browns ultimately started four quarterbacks, finished last in points scored, and last in interceptions and total turnovers – a deadly combination.
Dickerson had the unenviable task of following legendary O-line coach Bill Callahan, who sensed a seismic change for the worse when the Browns fired offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt after an 11-6 record in 2023.
When Callahan asked out of his contract to join his son Brian in Tennessee, the Browns’ indomitable, wide-zone running scheme was dismantled. One of the most highly-paid offensive lines in the NFL crumbled. The Browns led the league with 77 penalties committed on offense and were second in pre-snap penalties.
“I think the world of those two guys as people, as coaches, but I’m going to go in a different direction and I’m appreciative of their hard work as well,” said coach Kevin Stefanski, who will begin his search for a third offensive coordinator in three years immediately.
“This is never going to be about one person, let me make that clear. Or in this case, about one coach or another coach. This is something that we all own. We all share in that but have to look at all of it.
“Just bottom line, I want to go in a different direction. We need to improve, as everybody knows, on the offensive side of the ball, and that’s what we plan to do.”
Frank talk from veterans
It is incumbent on the respected veteran players on offense to speak out at certain times. All-Pro linemen Joel Bitonio and Jack Conklin, who privately questioned the direction of the offense, finally stopped biting their tongues.
Conklin pinpointed the demise of the offense on catering to Watson.
“I think creating [an offense] around an individual makes things tough for everybody else,” he said.
“We lacked identity offensively. I think we tried to do a lot of different things and we didn't really get good at doing one thing. And I think that was really the hard part, and I think there's a lot we need to fix and a lot of things that really just comes down to finding our identity and what we want to hang our hat on and do and move forward with that.
“You got to stick with what this team's been built around and if we can do that, I think we can have a lot of success with that part of it.”
Bitonio said it’s obvious the team has to return to Stefanski’s play-action scheme and he hopes it can rekindle the Callahan wide zone-run scheme.
“Yeah, I think so,” he said. “I think that’s what Coach Stefanski’s comfortable with. The marriage of run and pass, take your shots, play-action heavy things. It’s what we had the most success with. The line was kind of built that way, as well.
“Me and [guard] Wyatt [Teller], as pullers, running some outside zone. That was what I did well in my career. I probably pulled like less than 10 times this year overall. And there were games in my career when I’ve pulled 8 or 10 times in a game. So, it was different, for sure. But I think that’s where the strength of the offense is. And hopefully we can build it up and get the right people in the right positions.”
Who’s next at OC?
Per the Browns’ “process,” Stefanski won’t be able to pick his next offensive coordinator by himself. It's the way they do business.
“That’ll be all of us,” Stefanski said of the vetting process inside the building. “It’s kind of all hands-on deck -- myself, AB [Andrew Berry], a bunch of people.”
Early logical candidates include Saints OC Klint Kubiak, son of Stefanski-mentor Gary Kubiak, and Josh McCown, the former Browns QB who has ridden the wave of the Minnesota Vikings’ success as coach Kevin O’Connell’s QB coach.
They’re No. 2
New England’s 23-16 upset win over the Buffalo Bills JV team cost first-year coach Jerod Mayo his job and the Patriots the No. 1 pick in the draft.
As a result of Sunday’s games, Tennessee claimed the No. 1 spot in the draft and the Browns rose to No. 2.
According to Tankathon.com, which tracked the strength-of-schedule tie-breaker throughout the day, Tennessee (3-14) earned the No. 1 draft spot because its opponents finished with a .523 win percentage. The Browns’ opponents finished at .536. The Giants (3-14) took the No. 3 draft position when their opponents finished at .556.
The Patriots began the day with the No. 1 spot, but dropped to No. 4 after they finished at 4-13. Their .471 strength-of-schedule would have guaranteed the top draft pick had they lost.
Everybody assumes owner Robert Kraft will replace Mayo – a one-and-done coach who replaced legendary Bill Belichick – with Mike Vrabel after the Patriots owner complies with the Rooney Rule and interviews two minority candidates.
At No. 1, the Titans are expected to entertain trade offers from teams seeking a quarterback at the top of the draft. If the Browns stand pat at No. 2, they would have their choice of quarterbacks Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders, two-way sensation and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, or the top-ranked defensive lineman in the draft.