Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski says he'll call the plays, not coordinator Ken Dorsey

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Kevin Stefanski finally answered the big unknown which had hung over the Browns' coaching staff on Thursday. The Browns head coach is going to continue to call the plays this season.

The question had hung over the Browns since Stefanski shook up his offensive coaching staff shortly after January's AFC wild card loss to the Houston Texans. Among the moves he made was to hire Ken Dorsey as offensive coordinator , whom many wondered if he would take over the play-calling chores.

Stefanski didn't let the question go beyond the first training camp practice at The Greenbrier. Shortly after the Browns wrapped up a short workout on Thursday, he announced the decision.

"I'm going to call the plays this year, so I'm going to get that out of the way," Stefanski said after Thursday's practice. "I know everybody's interested. Any decision I make for our football team, I take a lot of information in. I try to listen to a lot of people and make decisions and ultimately, what I feel really, really confident in is our offensive staff. I feel really strongly about Coach Dorsey and the entire offensive staff, so we will continue to be a operation that works together. It's never been a one-man show."

The two-time NFL Coach of the Year has called the plays since he was hired as the Browns head coach in 2020. The only game in that span in which Stefanski didn't call the plays was the wild card win at the Pittsburgh Steelers in January, 2021, when he was sidelined with COVID and then-offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt handled those chores.

Stefanski said the decision on the play-calling role was made neither in a vacuum nor well in advance of the start of training camp.

"I take my time on decisions," Stefanski said. "I talked to a lot of people. Decisions that I think are important to the team, I take my time and I talk to people, I gather information."

Van Pelt was part of the offensive staff shake-up in January, when he was let go along with running backs coach Stump Mitchell and tight ends coach T.C. McCartney. Offensive line coach Bill Callahan also departed when he joined the Tennessee Titans' staff after his son Brian was hired as their head coach.

The Browns ranked 16th in total yards (335.9), 12th in rushing, 19th in passing (217.2) and tied for 10th in points (23.3) last season. However, the number don't nearly tell the tale of what Stefanski, with Van Pelt's help, did with the offense.

Quarterback Deshaun Watson was limited to just six starts due to multiple shoulder issues, including a season-ending broken glenoid in November that required surgery from which he's just recovering. The Browns went through both rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson and fourth-year pro P.J. Walker before veteran Joe Flacco signed the week of Thanksgiving.

Flacco was the fourth of five starting quarterbacks last season for the Browns, with Jeff Driskel starting the regular-season finale while Stefanski rested most of his starters. Flacco went on an unprecedented run in his five regular-season starts in December, throwing for 300-plus yards in the last four of those to help him win NFL Comeback Player of the Year honors.

The injuries didn't just stop at the quarterback position. The Browns also lost four-time Pro Bowl running back Nick Chubb to a season-ending knee injury in the second quarter of their Week 2 loss at the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Stefanski hired Dorsey as Van Pelt's replacement, along with Duce Staley (running backs), Tommy Rees (tight ends) and Andy Dickerson (offensive line). Dorsey had spent a year-and-a-half as the Buffalo Bills' offensive coordinator before being fired midway through last season.

From the moment Dorsey was hired, the questions began about the offense, both its composition and who would be calling the plays. During June's minicamp, the new offensive coordinator could regularly be seen on the walkie talkie, communicating the plays to Watson on days he was able to throw.

The goal with hiring Dorsey was to help accentuate the various strengths of Watson, who enters his third season with the Browns after the controversial 2022 trade with the Texans. However, both Dorsey and Stefanski have spoken of a collaborative effort in formulating the offense, involving all of the offensive coaches.

"I want to reiterate, I feel really, really strongly about our entire offensive staff," Stefanski said. "Ken Dorsey is going to be a huge, huge help to me, not just on game day, throughout the week. He has a huge influence on what we do offensively already, the things that we're implementing, things that he's putting together, the way he works with our offensive staff."

Stefanski was the Vikings' offensive coordinator in 2019, but first took over the play-calling duties for Minnesota over the final three games of the 2018 season. The Vikings ranked eighth in the league in scoring and 10th in red-zone percentage while going 10-6 in the regular season and reaching the NFC divisional round against the 49ers.

The level of comfortability Stefanski has gained in the play-calling role wasn't something he was ready to say factored into the decision.

"I know it can be done in a bunch of different ways," Stefanski said. "My confidence comes from the people around me. I feel really strongly about that group. I feel strongly about how we operate on game day and the communication that we've had from a game management standpoint.

"And then this again, I go back to a bunch of new coaches. ... That's important. Those are important factors in all of this as well."

Dorsey's only play-calling background in the NFL came during that year-and-a-half as the Bills' OC. At the time he was fired, the Buffalo offense was ranked seventh in the league in total yards, seventh in passing yards, eighth in points scored and 13th in rushing, but had struggled as part of a 2-4 stretch.

The previous season, Dorsey's lone full season as coordinator, the Bills were second in total yards, seventh in rushing yards, sixth in passing yards and fourth in scoring, while being the most efficient third-down offense in the league. Quarterback Josh Allen also was the runner-up for the NFL Most Valuable Player Award.

Dorsey will remain as the de facto quarterbacks coach, working directly with Watson.

"I feel real confident about Ken's ability to coordinate the offense and so much goes into that," Stefanski said. "Whether it's install, managing the staff, and then as you know, Ken is the main voice in the quarterback room. Now I'm in there every day and listening and adding when I feel appropriate. We have a young coach, Ashton Grant, is in there. We have veterans and Jameis (Winston) and (Tyler) Snoop Huntley, so there's a lot of really strong voices in there. But I do think Ken has a unique perspective and I think I feel really confident in his ability to impact both the quarterback room, but more importantly the offense."

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski says he'll call the plays, not coordinator Ken Dorsey