Less than one year ago, the Cleveland Browns hired Ken Dorsey to fix Deshaun Watson.
Early Sunday morning, several reports indicate that the Browns have fired Dorsey after concluding a dreadful 3-14 season.
Hiring Dorsey never made much sense in the first place. He’s the coordinator that was jettisoned from the Buffalo Bills, and almost immediately after his departure, Josh Allen looked like an MVP candidate and the orchestrator of one of the best offenses in the NFL—even without star receiver Stefon Diggs.
The outcome of Dorsey’s tenure in Cleveland was identical to his time in Buffalo—a colossal failure.
Dorsey was only hired because the Browns needed some last grasp at hope in saving Watson, the player they sacrificed the future of their franchise for. To save face, members of the Browns organization repeatedly stated that they needed “fresh ideas,” signifying that there was something wrong with the Kevin Stefanski-led offense that won Joe Flacco the Comeback Player of the Year award. Oh yeah, and the Browns had 11 wins with a playoff appearance.
But the one thing that wasn’t working in Cleveland? Watson.
Dorsey was not given playcalling duties to start the season, and Stefanski rolled out some weird, hybrid mashup of his “Kubiak offense” with the spread offense that Dorsey ran.
Once Watson went down with a season-ending Achilles injury, Dorsey took over playcalling duties.
There were a few fun Jameis Winston games, but his leash ran out when he threw too many interceptions, which could have potentially been prevented if he would’ve been allowed to run the play-action style offense that Stefanski had successfully implemented with Flacco, Baker Mayfield, PJ Walker and several other quarterbacks.
A mysterious shoulder injury ensured that Winston would no longer see the field as the Browns closed out the season with Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who somehow has not developed at all in two NFL seasons, and journeyman Bailey Zappe, who successfully completed the tank, securing Cleveland a top three NFL Draft pick.
Outside of fun victories against the Baltimore Ravens and a memorable, primetime snow game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dorsey’s offense showed absolutely nothing to be desired. According to reports on Sunday morning, Stefanski will be taking control of his offense back, reverting back to the system that won 11 games the year before.
In recent weeks, there have been reports of bringing Watson back to Cleveland “with some competition,” whether that be a veteran through free agency, trades or the draft.
Watson had a very hard time recovering from the rare shoulder injury that ended his 2023 season and wasn’t much of a participant in training camp. He didn’t play at all in the preseason.
Coming off of a ruptured Achilles, it’s going to be hard for Watson to win whatever phony camp battle the Browns assemble. He struggled in Stefanski’s offense. Cleveland.com reported last week that a source close to Watson said that he’d be most functional if he had full command of the offense.
