Steve Smith: `Collaboration Will be Crucial for Bills OC Ken Dorsey'
Perspective from a receiver with 16 years of NFL experience, including one in which he and new Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey were on the same team, points to how Dorsey will interact with his players as the key to any success.
Former Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens star Steve Smith suggests Dorsey has to remain open to suggestions and willing to change direction if headed down a wrong path.
"What you don't want to do is start to turn on the selective hearing of your players because they feel like that you're unapproachable, they feel like that you don't listen," Smith said in an appearance on One Bills Live. "And I'll tell you what I dislike more than anything: I dislike the smartest guy in the room. If you're the smartest guy in the room, that means you know all the answers. If you know all the answers, that means we're in trouble. Because there's no way that you can ever know every single thing by watching."
Smith wasn't labeling Dorsey as that guy, just saying that Dorsey can't ever project that image and expect to succeed in his first assignment as offensive coordinator, especially in a system in which he likely will have more power than most because of head coach Sean McDermott's defensive background. McDermott has never been a play caller on offense.
For his part, Dorsey does plan to take an interactive approach and lean especially hard on quarterback Josh Allen for input, though there will be times when he rejects Allen's suggestions.
In those cases, it will be especially important for Dorsey to be proven correct, according to Smith.
"What helps is the success of the play," Smith said. "If you're going to minimize my suggestion, your option better be better than mine. It better work."
Smith played 13 seasons with the Carolina Panthers and three more with the Baltimore Ravens in a spectacular career than featured 1,031 career regular-season receptions for 14,731 yards and 81 TD receptions.
In Smith's final season (2013) with the Panthers, Dorsey was promoted from pro scout to quarterbacks coach. Smith was the highest-targeted wide receiver on that team, which finished 12-4 before losing to the San Francisco 49ers in the playoffs.
By the time his playing career was over, Smith had experienced the very best and very worst of the NFL.
"There [are] some coaches out there that have [all] the answers to the test," Smith said, "and that erodes at the player and the coach's relationship, because the player starts to feel like you know everything, which means you're going to tell me to check my brain at the door, which means that this is not really a relationship and eventually ... `why should I bother being here? Because you have all the answers.'
"... So if you can collaboratively talk and be cohesive — and yes, they'll be, `Hey, we're not going to do it this time, but let's do it this other time' — and you make that player feel like you're listening, it's going to be fantastic, it's going to be an awesome relationship."
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Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro. Email to Nicky300@aol.com.
