BEREA, Ohio -- In his 17 years working in the NFL, it wasn't until Thursday that Hue Jackson crossed paths with John Dorsey. But it didn't take long for the Cleveland Browns head coach to see that he had plenty in common with the team's new general manager.
"He is a football lifer is what he is. That is all I have known," Jackson said. "The fact that I was able to talk to people firsthand who I know who have worked with him that I trust in this business made me feel really comfortable that way. That is what it is all about."
What does that mean?
As opposed to the Browns' former top personnel executive, Sashi Brown, who previously served as the team's general counsel, Dorsey's background is in football -- and football only. After a five-year career playing linebacker for the Green Bay Packers, Dorsey joined the organization as a scout, working his way up to Director of College Scouting prior to a one-year stint as the Seattle Seahawks' Director of Player Personnel in 1999.
Dorsey then returned to Green Bay, where he became the team's Director of Football Operations in 2012. A year later, he left for the Kansas City Chiefs, who he helped take from having the first pick in the draft to three playoff appearances in the next four years.
Analytics -- which Brown favored -- will still remain a part of Cleveland's operation moving forward. But in Dorsey, the Browns now possess a more traditional football mind at the helm, which was something that was clearly important to team owner Jimmy Haslam.
"I was particularly attracted to two things," Haslam said. "John's background as first of all a player in the NFL. And then growing up through scouting in the Green Bay Packers organization and being trained by Hall of Famer Ron Wolf and occupying just about every position you could except GM in the Packers organization.
"And then he went to Kansas City, where the year before John got there they were 2-14. Then over the four years John was there, they averaged winning almost 11 games a year. They were 43-21 and made the playoffs three out of four years. So obviously he's been a highly successful GM."
That's something that's evaded the current incarnation of the Browns -- particularly since Haslam purchased the franchise in 2012. And no, it's not a high bar to clear, but Dorsey is clearly the most qualified candidate Haslam has hired to head Cleveland's football operation.
That's not to say dysfunction might not make its annual appearance in Berea next December -- if not sooner. But thanks to their similar backgrounds, Jackson and Dorsey are -- at least for now -- on the same page.
"He has been in the National Football League for a long time and so have I so we know mutual people," Jackson said. "Everybody says he is a tremendous talent evaluator. Great to work with -- a true football guy."
