Bills fire offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey; Joe Brady to take over as interim OC

With the offense struggling to overcome mistakes, the Buffalo Bills made a seismic move less than 24 hours after their loss to the Denver Broncos.

The Bills fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey on Tuesday, the team announced. Quarterbacks coach Joe Brady will take over as the interim OC for Sean McDermott’s club.

“Just felt like it was time for a change,” Bills head coach Sean McDermott told reporters later Tuesday after the announcement. “You know, we need to be a confident offensive football team and find consistent production, and that’s really what it came down to.”

Dorsey was elevated from his role as Bills passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2022 when Brian Daboll left to take the New York Giants head coaching job. In 28 games under Dorsey, the Bills continued to put up yards and points. In 2022, Buffalo ranked second in the NFL in yards and points. Through 10 games in 2023, the Bills sit seventh in yards and eighth in points.

Sitting at 5-5, the Bills’ offense has been inconsistent, unable to move the ball for stretches, lacking a reliable ground attack and struggling mightily with turnovers. Too often this season, the Bills’ offense looked like an amalgam of plays rather than a cogent plan.

Buffalo’s struggles have mostly come due to costly turnovers. The Bills turned the ball over four times (two INTs, two fumbles lost) on Monday night, with three pinned on quarterback Josh Allen. It marked the second game this season for Buffalo with four-plus giveaways. The Bills have 18 turnovers on the season, tied for the second-most in the NFL.

Ultimately, Dorsey, who earned a head coaching interview during the last cycle in Carolina, took the fall for the struggles. But will the change be enough for a disappointing Buffalo club with a tough schedule down the stretch?

The Bills move forward with Brady as the play-caller for the season’s final seven games. The 34-year-old saw his star rise in 2019 as the passing game coordinator for LSU during its run with Joe Burrow to the College Football Playoff National Championship. In 2020, he was hired by the Carolina Panthers as offensive coordinator under Matt Rhule. In two seasons in Carolina, the Panthers’ offense barely got off the ground, ranking 21st and 24th in yards and points, respectively, in 2020 and 30th and 29th in 2021.

“Just more than anything, like I just said, is come out with an energy about our offense and what we’re doing and move the football and score points,” McDermott said of what he wants to see from the offense under Brady. “That’s really the offense’s job at the end of the day.”

Monday night’s loss signaled panic in Western New York, as Buffalo dropped to 10th in the AFC. McDermott moved to fire Dorsey hours later, looking for a spark to jumpstart a meandering Bills club.