The New York Giants and Buffalo Bills Go to War Over Josh Allen’s Quarterbacks Coach Ken Dorsey
Success in the NFL is a double-edged sword. Every team is chasing it, but it can take its toll once it comes. The Buffalo Bills are dealing with this now. On the heels of the organization’s most success since the early 1990s, the New York Giants have hired Bills assistant general manager Joe Schoen and their new GM and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll as their head coach. Now, the New Jersey-based organization is also trying to steal highly-coveted offensive assistant Ken Dorsey.
The New York Giants raided the Buffalo Bills this offseason by hiring Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll
In 2017, in the midst of a 17-season playoff drought, the Buffalo Bills hired Carolina Panthers assistant GM Brandon Beane as their GM and the NFC team’s defensive coordinator, Sean McDermott as head coach.
After breaking the franchise’s playoff layoff that season, Beane and McDermott drafted Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen. Since then, the Bills are 40-25 and are now a perennial Super Bowl contender.
The New York Giants’ Tom Coughlin Era ended in 2015. Since then, the Giants have hired and fired three head coaches (Ben McAdoo, Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge) who’ve produced a combined 33-64 record.
To right the ship in the Meadowlands, the Giants have turned Westward and hired two of the people who have helped Beane and McDermott resurrect the Bills.
Beane’s assistant GM Joe Schoen started his career as a ticket office intern with the Panthers before working in scouting for the Miami Dolphins, per Giants.com. He’s spent the past five seasons in Buffalo, helping Beane scout, draft, and acquire the core of the Bills’ current roster.
Brian Daboll has been McDermott’s offensive coordinator since 2018. The Buffalo native spent 11 years (in two separate stints) with Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. He’s also worked for Belichick disciples Eric Mangini and Romeo Crennel and was Nick Saban’s OC at Alabama in 2017.
Schoen and Daboll get a lot of credit for picking and developing Allen. The duo’s task now is to do the same with Daniel Jones or whoever they decide the next Big Blue QB will be.
To mirror their success in Western New York, they want to take offensive assistant Ken Dorsey with them, but the Bills — and especially Allen — aren’t too keen on that.
Daboll and Schoen want to bring Buffalo passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach Ken Dorsey to the Giants
Brian Daboll leaving the Buffalo Bills for the New York Giants will hurt Josh Allen and the Bills’ offense. The unit was the NFL’s No. 2-ranked scoring unit in 2020 and No. 3 in 2021.
To keep continuity, the move that makes the most sense for Buffalo is to elevate quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator Ken Dorsey to the OC position. The problem is, Joe Schoen and Daboll want Dorsey for the same role in New Jersey.
Both Sean McDermott and Allen have insinuated they’d like Dorsey to replace Daboll, per USA Today. However, with Schoen and Daboll in pursuit of Dorsey as well, the future OC has a tough decision to make.
The safe route is to stay with Allen and the Bills. Dorsey will likely never get credit Daboll did for developing Allen or creating a great system for him, but he will get to coach a much better offense in 2022 and possibly beyond. A few years in that spot — and maybe a Super Bowl title — and Dorsey can write his own ticket.
The Giants OC job is the high-risk/high-reward play. If Dorsey and Daboll can turn Daniel Jones around or develop a rookie like Pitt’s Kenny Pickett right away, the OC could become one of the hottest names for head coaching gigs as soon as 2023. However, Daboll is likely to call the plays, and if the Giants struggle with Dorsey in charge of the offense, it could derail any head coaching aspirations he has.
Other factors such as money, franchise stature, and lifestyle desires will surely come into play for Dorsey. No matter which organization he decides on, though, the reality is that Dorsey will be an NFL OC in 2022.
Who is Ken Dorsey?
If you are any type of college football fan, the name Ken Dorsey should ring a bell.
Dorsey grew up in California playing quarterback and went to Miami for college. Despite not having the strongest arm, Dorsey led the Hurricanes to a 38-2 record as a starter (the best mark in Canes history) and won the 2001 national championship, per BufBills.com.
Despite the success, Dorsey wasn’t a big-time NFL prospect. However, the San Francisco 49ers drafted him in the seventh round (No. 241) of the 2004 draft, and the QB spent five seasons in the league as a backup with the Niners and Cleveland Browns.
After retiring, Dorsey joined the Carolina Panthers organization, first as a scout and then as the quarterbacks coach for Cam Newton. During his time in Charlotte, the Panthers went to a Super Bowl, and Newton won the NFL MVP Award.
The former Miami Hurricane eventually followed his fellow former Panthers, Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott, to Buffalo, where he’s worked with Josh Allen as his quarterbacks coach since 2019. Heading into the 2021 season, the Bills added passing game coordinator to the former QB’s title.
With his success as a QB Whisperer to two of the best young signal-callers of the past decade, it’s no wonder Dorsey is in such high demand right now. If he chooses his next job correctly, that demand could extend to the 2023 head coaching carousel.
All stats courtesy of Pro Football Reference
