John Dorsey: What the Lions are getting from a Browns point of view
John Dorsey is joining the Detroit Lions front office in a senior personnel executive role. The exact details of the position are not yet clear, nor has the hiring been made official by the Lions just yet. But as someone who covered Dorsey with the Cleveland Browns, it’s a move I really like for the Lions.
Back when the Lions fired Bob Quinn as the GM, Dorsey was a popular candidate amongst Detroit fans. It was a concept I was vehemently against, based on my experience with his Browns teams. Here’s some of what I opined at the time,
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.
Those are not good qualities for a GM. The Browns got instantly better after replacing Dorsey with young Andrew Berry, notching the franchise’s first postseason victory since 1994 in the first post-Dorsey year.
But a lot of the key players on the rapidly ascending Browns are in Cleveland because of Dorsey. He’s got a well-honed eye for talent and for having a vision of how his team will win. And those are qualities that will help the Lions in his new capacity in Detroit.
It sounds like Dorsey will be the director of football operations for all intents and purposes. It’s a new role for the Lions front office, one that I screamed for in November. And that is exactly the role I had in mind for Dorsey in Detroit back when the Lions terminated the failed Bob Quinn experiment.
Few men identify talent better than Dorsey. Every GM has misses in the draft, and Dorsey is no exception. But he’s been very adept at making the smart choice and aggressive moves, like making the trade while the GM in Kansas City to acquire Patrick Mahomes, or stealing Pro Bowl WR Jarvis Landry from Miami in one of his first moves with the Browns. He’s someone who has valued the most important positions on the field (QB, DE, CB, WR, OT) with premium value, be it in the draft, trades or free agency.
His biggest failures as a GM are things that are largely out of his sphere of influence now. He bungled the coaching situation in Cleveland twice, first sticking with Hue Jackson after a 0-16 season and then choosing the supremely overmatched Freddie Kitchens a year later as the permanent replacement. His willingness to turn a blind eye to character flaws or acknowledge personnel mistakes goes away with this new role in Detroit.
I have some reservations about how his style will blend with GM Brad Holmes. They are very different personalities. That doesn’t inherently mean conflict or negativity, however. Dorsey is someone who will not be afraid to make the contrarian point in a draft discussion.
Let’s say Holmes and the bulk of the scouting department fall in love with North Dakota State QB Trey Lance with a first-round pick in 2021. Dorsey will not hesitate to let it be known he’s not on board if he doesn’t like it. That can be a very helpful position for a rookie GM in Holmes, and one who got the job in part because of his emphasis on consensus-building and hearing all voices. Dorsey might not win the argument or change the pick, but he will at least give Holmes and the rest of the braintrust more to think about, more reason to question — or reinforce — why they feel the way they do.
How Holmes and the rest of the Lions management reacts to that is an unknown variable. Again, Holmes earned universal raves from his former team, the Rams, for his ability to build a consensus and to be open-minded, but that could be different now that he’s the man with the final say. Dorsey will not hesitate to trample over any wishy-washiness on the rookie GM’s part, nor would he apologize about doing so. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. Here’s why:
Dorsey is now 60. He’s been a GM twice and his phone wasn’t exactly blowing up with offers to get a third opportunity this year. Coming to Detroit to work with a rookie regime is a chance for Dorsey to reestablish his GM credentials, if that’s something he still aspires to do. If he can’t be a team player with these Lions, Dorsey runs the very real risk of never getting another gig. He’s smart enough and self-aware enough to know this, too.
Alternatively, he can be the consigliere to Holmes as the new don in Detroit and ride that out for the rest of his career. After being involved in his press conferences, watching Dorsey patrol around at practices and training camp in his trademark white sweatshirts, and getting to know several underlings in Cleveland, it’s something I think he can embrace and thrive at doing.
It’s a good opportunity for Dorsey, and the Lions organization is smart to give it to him.
