After bold entrance, Dorsey gets to work
Finding QB is No. 1 job, but he must fit Jackson’s scheme.
CLEVELAND — John Dorsey had an eventful first week as the Browns’ new GM, cutting receiver Kenny Britt on his first day, calling out the previous regime for not getting enough “real players,” and stressing that he expects the Browns to win the AFC North in 2018.
He watched the Browns lose 27-21 in overtime to the Packers at First-Energy Stadium from the owners’ suite alongside Jimmy Haslam, and then sat in the postgame locker room to watch the impact of losing on his new players.
He spoke to quarterback DeShone Kizer at his locker and offered encouragement, but tasked his new personnel staff with ranking the 2018 class from 1 to 12 to get the ball rolling on what Haslam called his “No. 1 priority” of finding a QB.
Here are some things we’ve learned about Dorsey:
1. He’s a win-now kind of guy.
Enough of the long-term rebuild, one that’s been going on since the Browns came back in 1999. Dorsey is eager to “reawaken this sleeping giant” and he plans to turn the Browns around as quickly as possible.
He made that clear during a radio interview on Thurs- day when he said he expects the Browns to win the AFC North in 2018 “and anything else is unacceptable.”
That’s a lofty goal for a team that has lost 15 straight division games heading into today’s rematch with the Ravens. But the point is Dorsey is on the same page with coach Hue Jackson, who blew through the doors of the Browns’ facility in January 2016 promising to win a championship as soon as possible.
of Dorsey, 19 playoff who teams, was 11 part divisional titles, three conference championships and two Super Bowl victories in his 26 years as a personnel exec, knows the truth: There’s no such thing as a long-term rebuild in the NFL. The formula for winning includes finding a winning QB as fast as you can, and aggressively adding talent.
2. He knows he must find a QB — now.
Dorsey worked for the Packers when Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre won a Super Bowl, and was instru- mental in drafting future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodg- ers, who also won a Super Bowl. He knows the impor- tance of finding that fran- chise QB. He understands that the Browns are perennial losers because they haven’t solved the QB problem.
He knows they’ve passed in just the past two seasons on Carson Wentz, Deshaun Watson, Dak Prescott and others.
As GM of the Chiefs, he traded for Alex Smith and traded up to draft his successor, Patrick Mahomes.
Dorsey saw some good things in Kizer during the Packers game, but knows he must bring in top-notch competition if the Browns are to win games next season.
3. He likes Baker Mayfield.
likes Dorsey Heisman revealed Trophy that win- he ner Baker Mayfield, which will be interesting because at barely over 6 feet, the Oklahoma product doesn’t measure up to Jackson’s 6-2 threshold for a QB. It doesn’t mean Jackson wouldn’t want a shorter QB, or that Dorsey likes Mayfield better than all of the other QBs in this deep 2018 class. It just means that Dorsey and Jackson must start to share notes on these college QBs to see if they can agree on one. Dorsey hails from West Coast offenses that favor the shorter passing game, and Jackson favors a more downfield scheme. pledged But the to find new players GM who has fit Jackson’s scheme, and if that’s true, they might lean more toward Josh Rosen of UCLA than Mayfield. Whatever the case, they must be in sync. 4. He’s no fan of Sashi Brown. Dorsey leveled a shot heard ’round the NFL on Thursday when he said “the guys that were here before, they didn’t get real players.” Surely Dorsey didn’t mean that predecessor Sashi Brown and his executive team didn’t add any quality players to the team. But with 24 draft picks, 17 trades and copious amounts of cap space, Dorsey believes they should have more than one victory in two seasons to show for it. Granted, Dorsey is thrilled with the five upcoming picks in the first two rounds of the draft, but he doesn’t believe the Browns did enough with the resources Brown had. Most of the players Dorsey has said he likes were picked by previous regimes, including Duke Johnson, Danny Shelton and Joel Bitonio. But Dorsey is on board with analytics as a comple- ment to traditional evaluat- ing and as such must hash out a role for Paul DePodesta, the Browns’ chief strategy officer. Haslam says DePo- desta should play a key role going forward.