CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Browns wasted no time making changes following a disappointing train wreck of a 3-14 season.
Offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and offensive line coach Andy Dickerson were fired Sunday morning by the team.
“I think the world of those two guys as people, as coaches, but I’m going to go in a different direction,” Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said.
“I think there’s a lot that we need to look into and get fixed. This is never going to be about one person. Let me make that clear or in this case about one coach or another coach. This is something that we all own, we all share in that, but have to look at all of it.”
After finishing with the third-most losses in a season, tying the 1999 expansion team, executive vice president of football operations and general manager Andrew Berry and Stefanski are expected to keep their jobs after signing contract extensions prior to the season.
“We feel very responsible, and we are tied at the hip, and we will do everything in our power together,” Stefanski said. “Andrew works really, really hard at this... I'll let him speak for himself, but we're frustrated and we will get it fixed.”
It’s the second straight year the Browns fired their offensive coordinator. The team fired Alex Van Pelt, who went on to be hired by new England, last January to make way for Dorsey.
While Stefanski sidestepped direct answers Sunday as to why things crashed and burned in such spectacular fashion, right tackle Jack Conklin was pretty candid and matter of fact.
“I just think we lacked identity offensively,” Conklin said. “I think we tried to do a lot of different things and we didn't really get good at doing one thing. And I think that was really the hard part and I think there's a lot we need to fix and a lot of things that really just comes down to finding our identity and what we want to hang our hat on and do and move forward with that.”
Conklin really lamented the decision to go away from their wide zone blocking scheme and hoped that is something they return to in 2025.
The Browns offense underperformed with every quarterback that started, but especially with Deshaun Watson, whom Dorsey was brought in to elevate the game of.
Watson failed to throw for 200 yards in each of his seven starts this season and head coach Kevin Stefanski ceded play calling during games to Dorsey with no improvement in offensive output.
Regardless if Watson returns to the field, there is a lesson to be learned about making changes to cater to one singular player. Conklin hopes the Browns have learned it, albeit the hard way.
“I think it's just creating our own identity is what this team needs,” Conklin said. “I think creating around an individual makes things tough for everybody else. So I think you got to stick with what this team's been built around and if we can do that I think we can have a lot of success with that part of it.”
Late in the season team consultant Mike Vrabel appeared to take a lead role in coaching the offensive line during practices while Dickerson, who replaced Bill Callahan after Callahan went to work for his son in Tennessee in February, watched.
“I think we all knew that [Callahan's coaching] was going to be something we missed,” left guard Joel Bitonio said. “But we had faith in coach Andy, as well. And it's different philosophies, the way you coach, Bill's a little bit more in your face about things and Andy's more, how do you want to approach this? It's more of a group think type of thing. But, yeah, we didn't do enough. We didn't execute well enough on offense, and I can't point fingers at one person. I think it's such a group effort and there's so many factors that go into it that you go 3-14, someone takes the bullets for that. It's an unfortunate situation.”
The dismissal of Dorsey and Dickerson are expected to complete the major changes to the staff this offseason according to Stefanski.
