Past, present to collide for Browns’ Dorsey
CLEVELAND — John Dorsey’s roughest week running the Browns will close with a reunion.
The Kansas City Chiefs were once his football family — before the feud.
On Sunday, Cleveland’s first-year general manager will get an up-close look at the team he helped build into a Super Bowl contender playing against the one he’s trying to revive after years of decay — and just days after another coaching clean-out.
Dorsey served as Kansas City’s GM from 2013 to 2017, and was instrumental in the team drafting quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who leads the NFL with 26 touchdown passes, and in just his second year has become the face of K.C’s franchise.
Before he was fired by the Chiefs, Dorsey also selected running back Kareem Hunt, wide receiver Tyreek Hill and tight end Travis Kelce — a trio of options who have sped up Mahomes’ development.
“John picked ‘em,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said this week. “Yeah. He picked ‘em.”
It was an honest admission from Reid, who arrived with Dorsey in 2013 and appeared to win a power struggle when the GM was surprisingly let go in 2017, not long after the Chiefs gave their coach a contract extension.
The team has never given a direct reason for Dorsey’s firing.
On a conference call this Browns general manager John Dorsey will get a close look at his former team when Cleveland plays Kansas City on Sunday. Dorsey was the Chiefs’ GM from 2013 to 2017.
week, Reid didn’t want to get into specifics about his relationship with Dorsey or why Brett Veach was promoted to replace him.
“I am friends with John. I have been friends with John. I will leave it at that,” Reid told Cleveland reporters. “Things happen, and it happened. I have the utmost respect for him. You just watch how he gets that thing turned around right there.”
Mahomes wasn’t with Dorsey for very long, but got to know him during the
pre-draft process.
“Dorse is an awesome guy,” Mahomes said. “He is the guy who sent the pick in and got me. He is an awesome talent evaluator, as well as a guy. It was nice to get to know him for a little amount of time.”
In the 10-plus months he’s been on the job in Cleveland, Dorsey has reshaped the team’s roster through free agency and the draft and maybe found the team’s franchise quarterback in rookie Baker Mayfield.
It will be the first meeting
between Mahomes and Mayfield as pros. In 2016, Mayfield passed for 545 yards and seven touchdowns, Mahomes had five TDs and they rolled up over 1,700 total yards as Mayfield led Oklahoma to a 66-59 win over Texas Tech.
“That game was crazy, a lot of numbers, but I wish we’d have come out with a win at the end,” said Mahomes, who passed for 734 yards.
Mahomes also had another big number the Browns can’t let him duplicate.
“They were 20 of 25 on third down,” Mayfield said. “I think if we can keep them from completing 20 of 25 third downs, then we will have a better chance of winning.”
As the Browns develop under Dorsey, there is plenty of work ahead, but Reid believes they have the right man in charge.
“I think John is going to do a phenomenal job for you guys,” he said. “He has already done it. You have seen what he has done. You guys are in good hands.”