Bills’ Ken Dorsey to interview with Panthers on Saturday

Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey will interview for the vacant head coaching job with the Carolina Panthers on Saturday, one day before Buffalo hosts the Cincinnati Bengals in the divisional round of the AFC playoffs.

Dorsey, 41, is in his first season as Buffalo’s offensive coordinator. He replaced Brian Daboll, who left to become head coach of the New York Giants last offseason. Between Daboll and Dorsey, Buffalo’s offensive coordinator has interviewed for an open head coaching position in each of the last three postseasons. Defensive coordinator/assistant head coach Leslie Frazier has also interviewed for multiple openings in that same time frame.

In March of 2021, the Bills proposed a rule change to the league that would ban interviews for front-office and coaching openings until after the conference title games, and hiring until after the Super Bowl. Obviously, that proposed rule change was shot down.

Notably, that proposal was meant to aid coordinators on successful teams in securing better coaching positions, as teams are currently forced to wait to hire assistants until after their team has finished its postseason run.

In Dorsey’s first year calling the plays, Buffalo’s offense has largely picked up where it left off under Daboll in terms of total yards per game (381.9 in 2021 versus 397.6 in 2022), passing yards per game (252 last year to 258.1 this year), rushing yards per game (129.9 to 139.5), and points per game (28.4 in both seasons).