Browns OC Ken Dorsey Relishing Opportunity To Restore "Coachable" Deshaun Watson

At his introductory press conference, Browns new OC Ken Dorsey shared why he believes he can help restore Deshaun Watson back to an elite quarterback.

Much of the Browns future success rest heavily on the ability to restore Deshaun Watson back to the Top 10 quarterback he was with the Texans during his first four years in the NFL.

That will be the primary responsibility of Cleveland's new offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey – second only to winning games. It's a challenge, Dorsey feels he's ready and excited for.

"Watching Deshaun, he clearly has a great feel for a lot of different aspects of football," Dorsey said during his introductory press conference on Monday. "Whether it's scheme wise for us, instincts of what he sees on the field in terms of the defense and adjusting things. But I think that's the exciting part about working with him is is getting him back to to the elite level of who he is."

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Dorsey – who was once a Browns quarterback himself from 2006-2008 – is no stranger to working with "elite" quarterbacks. He earned his big break in the NFL working closely with former Panthers star Cam Newton as a quarterback coach. Under Dorsey's guidance, Newton put together an MVP season in 2015 while leading Carolina to the Super Bowl.  

Of course, most recently, Dorsey spent five seasons with the Buffalo Bills in several different offensive roles, helping shape Josh Allen into one of the game's top quarterbacks. He started as Allen's quarterback coach, then evolved into offensive coordinator the last two seasons before his firing during the 2023 campaign. Dorsey believes his previous experiences with Newton and Allen will help him in restoring Watson.

"People looked and saw Cam and and Josh and said 'oh they're they're the same," Dorsey said. "They're very unique and different players and a lot of ways so, every every one of these guys is so unique. No one's no one's the same, whether it's, you know, the mental, how they see the game, versus how they play the game, versus just their personality.

Jul 27, 2022; Pittsford, NY, USA; Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey talks with quarterback Josh Allen (17) during training camp at St. John Fisher University / Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports

"But you know, some of the things that you can do stays the same. They're ability to get outside the pocket, create, make plays, third down, extend plays, and put a defense in a bind. ... Every one of these guys is very different. But I think there's things you could take away [and apply to each]."

To Dorsey's point, Newton and Allen both developed reputations for being battering rams in the run game during their respective careers. Watson's stature doesn't quite compare to either of them – he's more of an elusive running quarterback than a bulldozer. Add in the fact that Watson is returning from surgery to repair a fractured glenoid in his throwing shoulder and finding the right balance between utilizing him as a runner and protecting him from serious injury will be another challenge for Dorsey.

"Deshaun wants to win," said Dorsey. "And he's gonna do everything humanly possible to help this football team win games. Sometimes that's putting your body on the line to do so. Now, what we got to do is make sure we're evaluating when we're doing those things, you know, is it is it first down and we're scrambling we got to first down already – get down, get out balance, and save yourself the hit. And those types of things, you know, those are all things that we'll look at because clearly like this, this team is, is at a different level when he's on the field."

Dorsey is wasting not time starting the communication process with Watson and other key offensive players and coaches in Berea. He shared that he's already spoken with Watson and is looking forward to getting to know him further. He's ready though, to have open and honest conversations about the state of the offense and how to get better. Luckily, Dorsey gets the sense Watson will embrace it.

"I think the first thing is we go through and we evaluate the season and we have honest conversations," the former Bills OC said. "We look at tape and we watch what you know what we did on the field and say hey, you this is our standard and this was good enough and this this maybe didn't live up to our standard. That's, that's the exciting thing about the shot is like, you know, from everything I've been told from Kevin [Stefanski] and the guys here, this guy you know, he wants to be coached, you know, he wants to be, you know, pushed and driven. And, you know, I think I'll be able to pick up you know, where the staff has left off on that."

Kevin Stefanski Not Ready To Name A Primary Play-Caller For Browns

Speaking of Stefanski, he addressed the elephant in the room when he opened up the press conference with a few remarks before officially introducing his new OC. The Browns head man wasn't ready to declare himself or Dorsey the team's official play-caller, something that will come at a later date. That said, Dorsey isn't too worried about that decision one way or another.

"Play-calling to me, not as important as winning football games," Dorsey said. "To me it's more about what's the decision that we feel most comfortable about moving forward to help out ream win. I've been, in my career, more interested about what can I do to help this team win more so than anything else. And that's the only thing that matters to me."