Ken Dorsey: Debunking a few myths about Cleveland’s new Offensive Coordinator

Ken Dorsey has been the subject of misinformation throughout the last few months

The Cleveland Browns have officially announced the hiring of Ken Dorsey as their new Offensive Coordinator following the dismissal of Alex Van Pelt on January 17th.

Just like with every coaching move, some different ideas and reputations surround each candidate based on several things such as recency bias, or just plain opinion. Though this is natural, it’s important to make sure that there’s some factual information mixed in to aid with accuracy of thought.

Once he was let go by the Buffalo Bills after Week 10 of the 2023 NFL season, quite a few untrue rumors or myths have been circulating about why he didn’t “cut it” as a play-caller for the Bills.

Myth #1: Buffalo’s offense got better when Dorsey left.

This might be the biggest fallacy about Dorsey’s time in Buffalo. Just by simply looking at some of the key offensive numbers before and after he left it’s easy to see that it was, in fact, quite the opposite.

Original image by Andrew Spayde.

One of the main changes that occurred in the post-Dorsey era for the Bills is that Josh Allen finally started to cut down on his horrible early-season turnover problem. Once he started to take care of the football down the stretch, the offense naturally looked “better”.

An offensive coordinator can’t be blamed for their quarterback making bad in-game decisions.

Myth #2: Dorsey doesn’t know how to get his playmakers the ball.

One of the apparent annoyances from the Bills fanbase was that Dorsey didn’t know how to get the ball to his weapons downfield, specifically star wide receiver Stefon Diggs.

Diggs’ per game average with Ken Dorsey at OC:

• 7.3 catches
• 86.8 receiving yards
• 7 touchdowns

Diggs’ per game average with Joe Brady at OC:

• 4.9 catches
• 43.1 receiving yards
• 1 touchdown

This is another false rumor that is easily debunked once the facts start to come into play.

Myth #3: His offensive scheme is “vanilla” and has never truly been effective at the NFL level.

Ken Dorsey’s offensive scheme has been very effective since being in charge of Buffalo’s offense as both their Passing Game Coordinator/QB Coach in 2021 and their full-time OC in 2022 and 2023. His offenses have always finished towards to top of every major offensive category in both the passing and run game.

Here’s a quick look at how his 2022 offense faired.

• 6361 total yards (4th in the NFL)
• 6.1 yards per play (2nd in the NFL)
• 4192 passing yards (8th in the NFL)
• 6.8 yards per attempt (6th in the NFL)
• 2232 rushing yards (9th in the NFL)
• 5.2 yards per attempt (tied-2nd in the NFL)

Dorsey’s 2023 Bills offense was off to a hot start as well. Here are some of his offensive numbers through week 10 compared to the rest of the league, per Mina Kimes:

• 3rd in DVOA
• 1st in success rate
• 3rd in EPA per play
• 4th in QB rating
• 3rd in yards per play
• 2nd in 3rd down conversion %
• 3rd in red zone efficiency

The fact of the matter is that Dorsey has been unfairly critiqued for Josh Allen’s turnovers this past season, as well as a plethora of other things that aren’t directly correlated with his actions as an offensive coordinator.

Do you think Ken Dorsey was a good hire for Cleveland? Join fellow Browns fans in the comment section below.