Dorsey’s teams in Kansas City and Cleveland both instantly surged upward after Dorsey left
John Dorsey is one of the more popular names being mentioned as a potential option for the Detroit Lions to succeed Bob Quinn as the team’s general manager. Dorsey has GM experience with two different teams, the Kansas City Chiefs and Cleveland Browns, as well as NFL playing experience.
As someone who experienced his Browns era from the beginning to the bitter end, I’m comfortable in saying I want no part of Dorsey as the new GM in Detroit.
I covered the Dorsey era in Cleveland from the introductory press conference in December of 2017 to his firing on New Year’s Eve of 2019. I asked him questions in press conferences. I talked to several players and staffers during his time there, aside from watching every snap of every game. And I really don’t want to see what happened with Dorsey’s Browns teams happen in Detroit.
I get why Dorsey is a popular candidate. He’s certainly got some very attractive feathers in his cap. Dorsey is aggressive, direct and demanding. None of those are negative qualities for the job if balanced properly. He has a good sense of positional values and his college scouting eye is one of the better ones.
I also saw the downside of Dorsey, and it’s a meaty list. The most prominent issue is his obstinance, and it’s something that ruined a lot of what he hoped to accomplish in Cleveland.
He is not someone who acknowledges errors or takes corrective actions well. Dorsey also showed a bad habit of favoring players as pet projects, often with blinders to their inadequacies or character flaws.
The most notorious of those is wide receiver Antonio Callaway. Dorsey took a shine to Callaway at Florida despite several off-field red flags including a season-long suspension. He traded up for Callaway in the fourth round in 2017 and stood by the enigmatic wideout when he was arrested for drug possession on his very first day in Cleveland. It never got better for Callaway, but Dorsey continually championed him.
Chad Thomas was another Dorsey pet project. A third-rounder in that first draft out of Miami, Thomas admitted in his scouting combine media session he was more interested in being a musician than being a football player. Guess what? Thomas is a (successful) musician and out of football. Dorsey jettisoned solid contributors in Carl Nassib and Emmanuel Ogbah to keep room for Thomas in Cleveland.
Dorsey is very much one of those GMs with “his guys”. It’s not to the extent of the QuinnTricia obsession with ex-Patriots, but his blind loyalty to his favored sons was a source of constant friction in Cleveland.
His draft record was hit-and-miss but generally solid. He was not the man who was responsible for Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City; that was Brett Veach. He did find Kareem Hunt among other talents, and Hunt became one of “his guys”.
That one turned out well for Cleveland, though Dorsey bringing him in after his ugly, captured-on-video domestic assault received a lot of media and fan condemnation at the time. For perspective, Lions ownership and Quinn as GM publicly stated they would not pursue Hunt due to his series of off-field issues.
Baker Mayfield (No. 1 overall), Denzel Ward (No. 4) and Nick Chubb (No. 35) are three of Dorsey’s first four picks. Yet of his two drafts, those are the only capable NFL players he found. They’re the only three players left in Cleveland from the nine-man draft class of 2018.
His playing favorites alienated several players and stunted progress of players who weren’t “his guys”. He also liked the idea of having contrasting voices on his coaching staff instead of a harmonious unit. Anyone who watched even 15 minutes of Hard Knocks in the summer of 2018 got a taste of that discord between head coach Hue Jackson and his coordinators, Todd Haley and Gregg Williams. Dorsey did that on purpose, thinking it would give his team an edge.
That was a carryover from his Kansas City experience, too. Dorsey has a confrontational nature to him when stressed, and he doesn’t react well to those who don’t fall in lockstep. It’s what led to his departure from the Chiefs.
He swung and missed badly in the coaching department in Cleveland. It was Dorsey who decided it was a good idea to keep Jackson as the head coach following the 0-16 campaign even with players openly mocking the coach. He permanently replaced Jackson with naif Freddie Kitchens, a disastrous hiring. Kitchens had half a season as the interim offensive coordinator, albeit one who coaxed record-setting play from Mayfield. It failed miserably despite Dorsey continually supporting Kitchens. Dorsey went down with another of “his guys”, one who shouldn’t ever be considered for a head coaching gig again.
For reference, here is what I wrote about Dorsey’s reign in Cleveland right after it ended last January,
Breaking down John Dorsey’s hit-and-miss tenure as Browns GM
I’d love to see Dorsey come to Detroit as the Director of Football Operations to assist a rookie GM, if the 60-year-old former Packers linebacker is willing. He does have an eye for premium talent and experience running an organization. But as a GM, I’ll take a hard pass on Dorsey.
