The next Joe Douglas?

The Philadelphia Eagles have hired former Kansas City Chiefs and Cleveland Browns general manager John Dorsey as a consultant, according to a report from NFL insider Mike Garafolo. It also sounds like the Eagles might promote Dorsey to a more permanent role after the 2020 NFL season. Garafolo had the following to say on NFL Network:

“John Dorsey, who’s been a general manager twice, his name is kinda sorta being kicked around again, possibly a third stint. Now, I would say that maybe the odds are a little bit stacked against him. But the fact of the matter is, he left the Chiefs and Browns in much better shape after he left the GM role. His ability to spot talent has been impeccable. And that’s why — quietly — the Eagles have brought Dorsey aboard as a consultant this year. They’ve lost a couple of guys in Joe Douglas and Andrew Berry that went and became general managers. So, Howie Roseman and the Eagles looking to strengthen their talent evaluation in the front office, brought Dorsey aboard. Now, we’ll see what happens with Dorsey in 2021. If he doesn’t get a GM job, perhaps he sticks with the Eagles in a full-time role. I know he is thought of extremely highly inside that building. So perhaps the Eagles will bring him aboard in a full-time role next year to help strengthen their talent on their roster.”

Some thoughts on this news:

• Probably no coincidence that this news emerged shortly after the Inquirer’s report about how Jeffrey Lurie hasn’t even considered firing Roseman. Seems like an attempt to placate fans.
• This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of the Eagles hiring a former NFL general manager as a consultant. You may have missed that the Eagles have previously worked with Scot McCloughan’s scouting service.
• There’s a surface-level appeal to Dorsey that will have some fans thinking this development is great news. I’m not so sure. I don’t know what impact he can truly have as a consultant when Roseman still has final say. I also think there should be concern about the team hiring Dorsey in a full-time capacity. He’s made some good draft picks in the past, sure. But there are serious red flags that stand out when looking at his track record. Pete Smith did a nice job of highlighting such issues at length in a recent article titled: “Don’t Hire John Dorsey As Your Team’s General Manager”:

The problem is that the bad outweighed the good by a significant margin. Dorsey has not evolved or adjusted as the game has changed over the past quarter century. He hasn’t incorporated improvements in the scouting process, simply relying on how he learned it dating back to his days with the Green Bay Packers, bristling at different approaches to scouting and roster building, which resulted in Andrew Berry leaving for the Eagles before coming back to take over the GM job.

It’s why he will take huge risks on players with extremely troubling character concerns and will scoop up former 5-star high school prospects that never panned out in college under the misguided notion that somehow he can unearth the greatness within.

Dorsey’s track record has been consistent since he first took over the Chiefs. He will draft a few outstanding players, waste an incredible amount of draft assets selecting picks on gut instinct over evidence, mortgaging future drafts in the process all while signing players to bad contracts that the next general manager will have to clean up.

Dorsey will tell fans and media that it’s all in the pursuit of wins and championships, but it doesn’t take long to realize it’s all for his own glorification. He wants to win, so long as he’s the one in control. A man who was arrogant enough to believe future Hall of Fame head coach Andy Reid needed to yield control to him will always get in his own way and the team will be the one that pays the price.

Both the Chiefs and the Browns are in far better places post Dorsey than they ever were with him. If a team is misguided enough to hire Dorsey for a third term as general manager, they can eagerly anticipate the moment the team improves because he’s no longer a part of it.

• Some more Dorsey condemnation worth considering:

• The Eagles potentially hiring Dorsey to be their next version of Joe Douglas shouldn’t be viewed a real solution to the team’s front office issues. It would just be another lame half-measure by this organization. Fans shouldn’t stand for the Eagles applying this year’s ‘Don’t hire a real offensive coordinator, just bring in a bunch of different assistants!’ approach to the front office. ‘Don’t fire Roseman, just surround him with highly thought of executives!’ The reality is it doesn’t really matter who the Eagles bring in to help with personnel since Roseman will still have final say.
• People really have to stop with this idea that the Eagles just need to find someone who can run the draft while Roseman is left to handle the cap. The Eagles aren’t in good financial shape! Roseman has handed out some of the very worst contracts in the NFL!
• The Eagles promoting Dorsey to a bigger role would very much be in line with this organization’s “no new ideas” ethos. How about maybe hire an up-and-comer instead of a failed retread who’s obviously been quick to wear out his welcome elsewhere?
• I wonder how the Eagles potentially promoting Dorsey would impact Doug Pederson’s standing. Doug and Dorsey overlapped in Kansas City. But there’s been talk that Dorsey and current Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy could be a package deal.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Dorsey and the Eagles moving forward. Maybe he gets a real general manager job elsewhere and this concern is all for naught. Or maybe he just stays on in a mere consultant role. But it sounds like there’s at least the possibility he could ascend in the Eagles’ organization ... and that might be troubling.