In a special episode of Brownie Breakdowns, the guys analyzed one of the key elements to Ken Dorsey's offense int he downfield passing game. Hear why it could be both a blessing and a curse for the Browns.
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00:00 My favorite thing that I'm most excited about with Dorsey is kind of that big play and how it's gonna
00:06 balance out with Kevin Stefanski. The way that I look at it, I've said it a number of times, but
00:13 if it was on a spectrum, Ken Dorsey's on one side where it's like, "I'm the crazy shot play guy.
00:20 I'm just gonna try to chuck that thing up." And Kevin Stefanski's on totally the other side where
00:23 it's like, "I want to play conservative, protect the football." So if they can meet somewhere in
00:28 the middle, I think that's good things for the Cleveland Browns. And some of their dropback
00:32 stuff is great. In my opinion, you can kind of see here, it comes off of a little bit of emotion to
00:38 that stack. And one of the concepts that, and this is just a general football concept, is you should
00:46 take one big shot per quarter, one deep throw per quarter for a number of reasons. It's for
00:52 pass interference. You see the flag fly in there, boom. It's for if you connect on it, you hit a big
00:57 play. And it's for just keeping the defense honest. If you try to run by them, they're going to have
01:04 to account for that and defend for that in the future. So the kind of the rule of thumb is one
01:09 shot play per quarter. And you get stuff like this to happen, whether he catches it or not.
01:13 Now you got first and goal at the one yard line because, hey, we came out of a timeout or whatever
01:17 it was, we took a shot towards the end zone and tried to make a big play. And some of the things
01:26 I love, what I used to hate with the Browns and not used to hate, what I do hate with the Browns
01:30 is like anytime they got in the shotgun and it was like, hey, if it's empty, they could only throw if
01:36 it was empty or if it was, you know, they had a one tight end attack. Like you knew when they were
01:40 throwing the football because it was so obvious. Like one of the things that I think Dorsey does
01:45 really well is mixes in different formations and still throws out of them. And it's just straight
01:50 drop. Like this is just a straight drop back concept where, hey, I'm taking three steps and
01:56 I'm going to take a shot. OK, again, let's say this is an amazing catch, right? This is this is
02:01 what we were talking about, where he had like two or three catches for a billion yards. But let's
02:05 say he doesn't even catch that. You know, he makes an amazing catch here. But if this hits the ground,
02:10 the Steelers are still respecting that. Hey, we have to protect everything deep. And when you do
02:15 that, when you have to play that that super shell, you get guys open here, you get a guy who's running
02:21 right here who's coming open like you get openings in the defense because they have to respect that
02:27 deep passing game that he really likes to deploy. All right, we talked about the running backs
02:35 earlier. I like this kind of a concept where we use the the running back on like a scat play.
02:40 This is a really good this is a really good concept and it's kind of it's a little bit layered.
02:44 You know, this is almost like an extended screen again where you use this coming out this way
02:48 and you need one guy, right? If he stays in the box, you're going to throw this.
02:53 If he doesn't and gets that, you got a slant coming on the backside. And again, it's a numbers
02:58 game. It's it's hey, this dude flies out, boom, flip my hips, fire one in there. Simple stuff,
03:04 simple, quick, effective. Get the ball to your receivers and go.
03:09 I think, yeah, another another thing I really like about Dorsey's mindset is the motion stuff.
03:16 I just think I mean, you look at the 49ers offense, you look at the Chiefs offense.
03:22 That stuff is so prudent to have in today's NFL. It's it can tell you a lot about what the defense
03:28 is running against you, but it also just it sets you up in situations like that, right? Where
03:32 if that linebacker does stay, you now have a guy that's kind of you said it earlier,
03:37 like an extension of the run game, getting the ball to him quickly. And Kevin Stefanski
03:40 tried some stuff like that, but it hasn't necessarily been as effective all the time.
03:44 So I think the idea that that improves and you use motion more is only a positive for
03:51 this offense as well. And how many times do we see do we just get into, you know,
03:56 we get into a set three by one, two by two empty and it just is there, right? And they don't move
04:02 and it's stagnant and the defense line to it. And then they they defend it and then they try to run
04:07 that type of thing where it's like the somebody does like a little bubble route and he's trying
04:11 to throw it to him, but it's covered, you know, and you're like, well, that wasn't a good play
04:14 call. Well, yeah, but with the motion, it kind of changes some things and it makes the defense
04:18 have to react in real time. And that's where you sometimes get mismatches. Yeah, absolutely. Watch
04:23 how this motion, the motion makes the defense talk, right? He comes in motion and the safety
04:29 starts to roll down, right? If he was staying, you know, if he stayed over here, they could have
04:33 just stayed in that too high shell and then rotated at the snap. Well, the defense or the motion makes
04:38 them talk, right? Makes them tell you exactly what they're doing. He's rolling down. Boom. You're
04:42 going to get something here, here. Now I know it's cover three. Now I know exactly, you know,
04:46 how I'm going to attack this route and attack this ball. And he stands in there, delivers one right
04:51 over the middle. Like the motion stuff is something that I really think again, watch, watch it up here.
04:56 It doesn't have to be a lot, just move them from outside, right into a stack. And let's take a shot
05:02 down the field. Like this is awesome right here. Okay. This is progression with an option. You got
05:06 chances here. This safety drives right now. He knows like he's stepping up to throw a home run,
05:12 right? Boom. And he's in there again. This goes back to the shot play. When you take shots down
05:16 the field, you know, good things happen when it's schemed up, right? I just think, you know,
05:20 when we continue to talk about this, this drop back passing game, it is going to be so much
05:26 improved and something that Cleveland can really grow with. And kind of really, it's going to
05:33 really, really help their offense kind of as the, you know, as he gets kind of rolling in here.
05:38 All right. I'm going to move that. And that is just a really good, like, hey, what he does is,
05:47 you know, some of the stuff he does that, you know, we potentially don't really like some of
05:50 that run game stuff can really improve, but some of the things he brings to the table that I think
05:54 are going to marry really well with Kevin Stefanski are the play action pass. It's going to
05:58 be the RPO game, and it's going to be some of that drop back game combined with Kevin's use of the
06:03 run game and use of like tight ends and different things like that. So those are some of the reasons
06:06 you like Ken Dorsey. And I agree with your sentiments on those things. The motion, I think,
06:10 is going to be huge. Being able to run out of the shotgun, if he can incorporate that, I think it's
06:14 going to be huge. The RPO stuff, that's a staple to having, I think, Deshaun Watson under center.
06:19 I think that's all good. I listed some of the things earlier that I'm a little concerned about.
06:23 Why wasn't the run game really, why did James Cook get better? Why were his touches up and the
06:28 offense was more effective with him running the football once he left? I have a concern about that.
06:34 I have a concern just about the fact that his offense is, I want the offense to be more down
06:43 field attacking. I do. And I think this is part of, like, this is what I wanted to get into a
06:50 little bit earlier. When you're a good coach, to me, knows where a player has a tendency or a
06:59 weakness or something, and they protect that player from doing that thing. And I think for Josh Allen,
07:08 we know, you brought it up earlier, he's kind of a wild guy. He's kind of a wild one. He'll
07:15 throw it up. I think back to his first year making the playoffs, he threw that pass deep down the
07:21 field like a fullback. He was in double coverage. He was too full. He's going to take those shots.
07:25 He's going to try those things. And I think on some level, Dorsey's offense being centered around,
07:32 let's take shots down field, that opened up Josh Allen to, I think Josh Allen's mind works like,
07:38 I want that because he knows he's got a cannon for an arm. So he didn't necessarily protect
07:43 Josh Allen from that by making the offense centered around, like, we're going to our
07:47 number one wide receiver. We're looking downfield. We're throwing it deep all the time. That's our
07:51 number one priority. And I think you saw, and it kind of reared its head in that Chiefs game in the
07:56 divisional round, that last drive before they missed the field goal, he was dinking and dunking.
08:03 He was throwing it over the middle. He was throwing short stuff. They're moving the ball down the
08:05 field. And then after the, it was either the two minute warning or a timeout. I think it was the
08:10 two minute warning. They came back out and what did he do? He took like two or three straight
08:14 shots to the end zone. And that's, that's what Josh Allen wants. He wants those shots downfield.
08:18 He wants to take the big shot and then that put them in an advantage, a less advantageous
08:23 situation where they were having a longer field goal and it made a little bit harder and then
08:26 pass misses it. We know how that all plays out. So, and, and the reason I bring this up is because
08:31 similarly, I think the Sean wants that. I think he wants it to attack downfield more. I think
08:36 that probably is generally more so what he's used to from his time in Houston, even, but I,
08:44 to this point, I've argued that I think there's something between the ears with Deshaun where
08:48 I think he wants it all back at once. And this is more getting into like just the,
08:52 um, the, the, the psyche of football, I guess. But like, I think he wants to restore his
08:57 reputation. I think he wants to like prove everybody he's still got it. I think he wants
09:01 to do all these things on like one big, one, one big plate chunks at the time, but what worked for
09:06 him best this year, right? That when you think back to that Ravens game, 14 of 14, 134 yards and
09:11 touchdown in the second half, it was a lot of just taking what was there and not overthinking it.
09:16 And so I worry a little bit about that dynamic, even though I think it's something to Sean needs
09:21 to get to, to be able to do, and it's going to benefit him. I also worry like, is he setting
09:25 him up to be in that same situation as Josh Allen, who, by the way, his turnovers dropped.
09:29 I wouldn't, I don't want to say substantially, but he cut his turnovers almost like a little bit
09:34 more than in half, a little bit less than in half. Once Dorsey was gone, he had far less and
09:40 he wasn't necessarily taking more risks, if you will, with the ball, which I, which I think is
09:44 notable as you look at the pre versus post Dorsey in Buffalo.