The Cleveland Browns have a new offensive coordinator in Ken Dorsey, and he stood before the media for his introductory press conference a day ago.
After letting go of Alex Van Pelt, who is now the offensive coordinator with the New England Patriots, the Browns conducted a search that included six names for their new offensive coordinator. At the end of the day, they landed on a man who has started games at quarterback for the franchise in Dorsey.
There are still questions that need to be answered about his role, but Dorsey joins Duce Staley and Tommy Rees as the newest members of the offensive staff. They are still in search of a new offensive line coach after Bill Callahan departed to work with his son in Nashville.
Sticking with Dorsey here, however, here are six things that stood out the most from Dorsey’s introductory presser as he jumps on board in Cleveland.
Playcalling question is still not answered
Head coach Kevin Stefanski opened the presser by introducing Dorsey and immediately hit on the topic that everyone is most curious about: playcalling. And he stated they are not at a point of making that decision.
Stefanski said:
“Play calling, which I know everybody wants to talk about. We’ll get there. It’s February 5. What’s most important, what I’m looking forward to the most is putting this offense back together with Ken really leading the charge. And that’s why he’s here and really pleased to have him here.”
Dorsey is not focused on whether or not he will call plays
While the playcalling question is not answered, it’s not a difference-maker for Dorsey either. He is here to do his job. When asked about his preference in terms of playcalling, Dorsey stated:
“Play calling to me is not as important as winning football games. To me, it’s more about, all right, what’s the decision that we feel most comfortable about moving forward to help our team win? And I’ve been in my career more interested about, okay, what can I do to help this team win more so than anything else. And that’s the only thing that matters to me.”
Dorsey is eager to get Deshaun Watson back on the horse
Many of the questions pertained to the quarterback that Dorsey would be tasked with getting the most out of in Deshaun Watson. And Dorsey exuded nothing but excitement to work with Watson as he comes back to Cleveland.
He answered questions about how Watson compares to Josh Allen and Cam Newton, the other two quarterbacks Dorsey has coached to success, and how he can get the most out of Cleveland’s $230 million investment.
Speaking on Watson, Dorsey came away impressed with the Browns’ starting quarterback:
“And then on top of it when you’re watching tape, and again, I wasn’t involved in the offense in the past – but when you watch it there are little intricacies of the position, whether he’s adjusting protections or making checks at the line of scrimmage and things like that that you really see kind of pop up. So just from the outside looking in, the ability to kind of handle the offense and do different things I think is pretty impressive.”
His Buffalo days are behind him
Dorsey was very short in talking about his time in Buffalo:
“I mean, look, at the end of the day, the head coach decided to make a change and that’s something that I’ve turned the page on. I’m really excited to be here and more focused on this opportunity than what happened there.”
He is here to help the offense evolve, not overhaul it
The Browns have done quite a few things well offensively over the years. They managed a top-10 offense with Jacoby Brissett under-center, have found a way to score a ton of points under head coach Kevin Stefanski, and even began to light defenses up down the stretch with Joe Flacco under center.
There are, however, plenty of elements that need to get better. The run game was completely stale after the injury to Nick Chubb, they turned the ball over way too much, and do not have a ton of man-beaters in their arsenal.
Dorsey knows he is here to add his own wrinkles to an already proven exceptional scheme, not look to overhaul it.
“I mean, you watch this offense on film and there are a lot of exciting things about it, not only from a player standpoint, but what we’re doing and creativity and different ways to attack a defense standpoint. So, I think there’s a lot of exciting things that we’ve done. And then obviously every year, whether it’s me coming in new this year, but every year, you look to evolve and to evaluate and change. Hey, do we like this? No, take it out. Do we want to add this? Yeah, add it. You know what I mean? There’s always that evolution that you look to try to stay ahead of the curve. So that’s going to happen.”
The offensive line in Cleveland is a big draw to the job
The Browns’ offensive line has built a reputation under Stefanski. And while the play dropped off a bit this year due to a plethora of injuries, the expectation remains that they will return to one of the best units in the league. This was a main draw to bringing Dorsey to Cleveland:
“You can’t help but get jacked up about this opportunity because of those guys up front. You watch them on tape and you can’t help but get excited about the guys that we got up there and what they’re able to do because they’re diverse in what they can do. To your point, you got a group of guys that can pull. You got a group of guys that can be zone-blocking scheme guys. You got a group of guys that could come out and get movement at the point of attack in gap schemes and duo schemes. So that’s the exciting part for me, in terms of scheme moving forward, I think that’s why it’s so important.”
