The Browns’ dismal 3-14 season reportedly isn’t expected to impact the future of head coach Kevin Stefanski, but that didn’t stop Cleveland from making a major change to its staff less than a day after their 2024 campaign ended.
Offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey was fired after just one year with the team, according to multiple reports, marking the second time in two seasons that a team canned the former quarterback and two-time Heisman Trophy finalist.
Cleveland also reportedly fired offensive line coach Andy Dickerson.
Under Dorsey, the Browns averaged the fewest points per game (15.2) and fifth-fewest yards per game (300.8) entering Sunday — a major reason why they’re positioned to land the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft if the Patriots defeat the Bills and the Titans knock off the Texans.
They also cycled through four quarterbacks this season, with Deshaun Watson’s torn Achilles in Week 7 prompting Cleveland to cycle through Jameis Winston, Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Bailey Zappe the rest of the year.
Stefanski continued to call plays to start the season, but in the days after Watson’s season-ending injury, he announced that Dorsey would take over as play-caller in a move expected to last the rest of the year.
“There are a lot of different aspects of it when you’re a play caller, versus when you’re in a support role to the play caller,” Dorsey told reporters in October when the Browns were 1-6 and staring down a complicated path to the postseason, according to the team website. “But obviously, done this before, and excited about the chance to go out and watch these guys play like they are capable of playing.”
The Bills hired Dorsey as their quarterbacks coach in 2019, and he added passing game coordinator to his title one year later before eventually taking over as their offensive coordinator for the 2022 season after Brian Daboll bolted to the Giants as their head coach.
But a strong debut campaign as Buffalo’s play-caller was followed by a 10-game stretch to start 2023 that jeopardized the Bills’ chances to clinch a postseason spot — even with Josh Allen as their quarterback.
After the Bills lost to the Broncos in Week 10, they fired Dorsey and promoted quarterbacks coach Joe Brady.
Still, despite the underwhelming production from his unit, Dorsey landed with the Browns in the offseason, but that ended up being a short-lived solution even with Cleveland expected to run it back with Watson — while also potentially bringing in quarterback competition for their $230 million disappointment — next year.
