Browns offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey not worried about who'll call the plays
BEREA — Kevin Stefanski didn't even allow the question to come up.
The Browns coach introduced his new offensive coordinator, Ken Dorsey, on Monday. Before Stefanski turned the microphone over to Dorsey, he took aim at arguably the biggest topic of conversation surrounding the hire.
"Play calling, which I know everybody wants to talk about," Stefanski said. "We'll get there. It's Feb. 5."
Stefanski has handled the play calling duties for his first four seasons as Browns coach. He's given no indication he's actually looking to give up the responsibilities on game day.
However, by bringing in a new offensive coordinator, it's at least opened the door to Stefanski handing off those responsibilities — especially to a coordinator who has handled them before, as Dorsey did for 27 regular-season and one playoff game for the Buffalo Bills the past season-and-a-half.
Dorsey will get his second chance to be an offensive coordinator after previously being strictly a quarterbacks coach in his NFL coaching career with the Carolina Panthers and Bills. In his first week on the job, it's not been something he's prioritized, at least in his initial public comments.
"Play-calling to me is not as important as winning football games," Dorsey said. "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, 'OK, what can I do to help this team win more so than anything else?' And that's the only thing that matters to me. So whether Kevin's calling it, I'm calling it, that's, to me, the most important thing is us as a team."
Dorsey was the play-caller for a Buffalo offense that finished the 2022 season ranked 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. Over the first 10 games of last season, before he was fired by the Bills, they were seventh in the league in total yards, seventh in passing yards, eighth in points scored and 13th in rushing, but had gone six consecutive games without scoring more than 25 points.
The Browns offense has not finished higher than 10th in points scored over the last four seasons. The highest ranking came this season, when, with five different starting quarterbacks, they finished 16th in total yards, 12th in rushing yards and 19th in passing yards.
Dorsey will still have a major responsibility in the Browns' biggest investment — getting quarterback Deshaun Watson back to playing at a consistently high level as he enters the third year of a five-year, $230 million contract fresh off season-ending shoulder surgery.
The man Dorsey's replacing, Alex Van Pelt, never had full-time play-calling duties during his time with the Browns, either. However, Stefanski and Van Pelt were seen, right up until Van Pelt departed, as being of almost a singular mind.
For Dorsey, the role he can play in helping generate the game plan holds as much importance as whether or not he will be the one calling the plays on game day.
"So now if Kevin's calling, what can I do? I can do my job to as high an ability as humanly possible," Dorsey said. "I can get Deshaun ready to play each and every week. I can get our room ready to play each and every week because we've got a great room and I'm sure we'll add to that.
"And then I could help develop a game plan that's going to help us be multiple, attack a defense in different ways, be aggressive and be elite in what we do. And that's the most important thing to me, just doing that to make sure if I'm in that role, hey, I'm going to do that at an extremely high level."
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Ken Dorsey not worried about who'll be Browns play caller
