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Keeping Dorsey blew the season..


BillMafia716ix

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3 minutes ago, strive_for_five_guy said:

Just because Dorsey can’t call plays and Brady can, doesn’t mean that Josh should also have had the extra burden to call the plays too.  Sure, Josh can audible out of certain looks, but he’s already juggling plenty during a game.


I agree and not saying he should have fixed it himself.   But as the QB and the one relaying and executing the plays, I’m wondering out loud why he didn’t step up and say something 

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1 minute ago, Virgil said:


I agree and not saying he should have fixed it himself.   But as the QB and the one relaying and executing the plays, I’m wondering out loud why he didn’t step up and say something 

stop and think about the crap storm that would have come down on Allen and in turn the team had he spoken out of line about anything related to the team.  

 

The narrative was put into place by diggs actions after the bengals loss in the playoffs.   Allen does not get to speak out on these things.

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1 minute ago, Virgil said:


I agree and not saying he should have fixed it himself.   But as the QB and the one relaying and executing the plays, I’m wondering out loud why he didn’t step up and say something 


Got it.  Assuming he wasn’t speaking up, maybe he thought he could save the day for Dorsey?  Just like he plays hero ball on the field, he might have the same mentality off the field too.  Or, he didn’t realize Dorsey was putting them in such bad situations, although that seems less likely if others like Diggs were pointing it out.

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  • Virgil changed the title to Based on just the last two games, was Diggs right and should Josh have spoken up sooner?
28 minutes ago, Wayne Arnold said:

Dorsey wasn't the problem.

 

It has always been McDermott. It becomes apparent with each game just how much he stinks.


He’s almost run out of guys to scapegoat and fire.  Daboll, Dorsey, Frazier, Crossman, Farwell, maybe Smiley soon…. Every departure strips him of another buffer/excuse.  Now he’s starting to blame the players.  He always says it starts with him, but then manages to list a bunch of other factors. 
 

I cannot forgive him for not giving Josh a chance at the end of regulation.  That’s when he lost me for good, and probably a bunch of players as well. 

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2 minutes ago, BRH said:

I cannot forgive him for not giving Josh a chance at the end of regulation.  That’s when he lost me for good, and probably a bunch of players as well. 

Natz quietly said "I guess they're looking to kneel and, ah, regroup". A commentator searching for words to explain the unexplainable. 

It is in these very discrete, slow motion moments that you realize bad game coach. :20 sec, 12 men. I focus on these moments as they are VERY crisp on HC.

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35 minutes ago, Roundybout said:

I mean the Dorsey hire made all the sense in the world. An in-house guy that worked with Josh through his rise, who knew the system, and who Josh liked. It’s just too bad he has the playcalling acumen of a box turtle. 
 

I don’t think it’s any kind of issue that Josh wasn’t public with it. He strikes me as a guy who won’t be publicly angry or critical. 

It made perfect sense and if we're being honest here Josh has had how many offensive coordinators in his career and at what level of competence? There's the high school ones where he didn't even go to a school that'd get him seen by scouts a Junior College and then Wyoming. Here he's had Dabol who's seemed good with him and then we made the decision to stick with a system that worked and a guy who knew it and Allen with Dorsey. Josh was always going to want to make it work with him, but if nothing else Josh is getting some serious experience as to why Dorsey didn't work.

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48 minutes ago, Wayne Arnold said:

Dorsey wasn't the problem.

 

It has always been McDermott. It becomes apparent with each game just how much he stinks.

 

Yeah, it's a real reach to suggest that McD didn't have a strong say in how Dorsey did things.  He even talks about "complimentary football," which could very well be his way of saying that the offense should revolve around the defense.  We'll probably never know, but his fingerprints are over so much that it's likely that that's the case.  

 

It's clear that McD hasn't a clue re: offense.  

 

Brady may be getting more lattitude from McD because McD knows that his a$$ is on the line at this point and he's willing to take that chance and relinquish all control of the O.  

 

 

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6 minutes ago, Virgil said:

I agree and not saying he should have fixed it himself.   But as the QB and the one relaying and executing the plays, I’m wondering out loud why he didn’t step up and say something 

 

I'd like to tag a couple of former players here.  I am not a former player of team sports.  @Buffalo716 @HoofHearted - I know there are others I'm missing, sorry, speak up.

 

To my understanding, it's a very very slippery and dangerous path for a player to start speaking out against their coach, especially during the season.  That's how you can become a "locker room cancer".  It's even slipperier and more dangerous if the player speaks out against the coach during the season and the coach is then fired. 

 

Think rookie Baker Mayfield speaking out and getting Hue Jackson fired mid-season, then reportedly lobbying for Freddie Kitchens to take over as HC the following year.  Think Carson Wentz arguably getting Mike Groh fired as OC then Doug Pederson fired as HC.  Even Tom Brady's last year in NE when it was rumored he and Belicheck were on the outs, you didn't hear it publicly.  Brady finished the season, voted with his feet in FA, and made his point from afar.

McDermott has said that he meets with Allen weekly.  That would be the time for Allen to privately and 1:1 express any concerns he may have had.  And he may have expressed concerns during those meetings, we don't know and we likely never will.  As it should be.

 

But again, to my understanding, players who succeed and sustain success at a high level do so in part because they are willing to accept appropriate boundaries in the locker room and with the coaching relationship.  When players stop doing this, it can absolutely go off the rails quickly. 

 

And frankly, it really may not have had to do with Dorsey's play designs at all.  It may have been a point of behavior - Dorsey had weird dilated pupils in his press conferences - is he using?  Or communication - we all saw Dorsey having a total meltdown in the press box, and if his style of discussing Allen's play choices was similar or alternating nice guy/meltdown, after a while people just tune that out.  (Don't tell me I have greatness in me 5 minutes after you've been putting me through the shredder)

Or it may have been a point that the Jets game was 5 weeks after Josh injured his shoulder vs. the Giants, and reportedly 5 weeks is about the time it takes for that injury to heal (per Hasselbeck and per Josh's experience with a L shoulder sprain in 2020).

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22 minutes ago, Wayne Arnold said:

 

Dorsey may be a meathead but the head coach should have recognized that sooner.

 

20 years from now we'll all look back at the McDermott Era as such a massive waste of time and opportunity. 

 

Or, McD was breathing down Dorsey's neck but not doing so now because he knows his a$$ is on the line.  

 

It is a strong possibility.  

 

Who knows.  We may never know the truth there, but often times things come out after major changes/firings take place.  Diggs for example, he may speak out, or another player that was jilted or diminished by McD's "Process," again, whatever TF that even is.  

 

 

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We need to kill this myth that "Josh chose Dorsey".

 

McD chose Dorsey, and ran the idea by Josh, who gave the thumbs-up because he was already familiar.

 

The amount of influence Josh had in this hiring is reaching mythical heights with the fanbase, and it's just not accurate.

 

Josh got the simple treatment that Wilson wanted in Seattle and Watson wanted in Houston. "Hey, before you make a final decision you might want to run it by your highest paid player and team leader to make sure there arent any surprises and to better promote a united front."

 

That's the extent of it.

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58 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

This is becoming a game of Clue.  "It was Josh Allen, in the training room, with a Theragun!"

 

Funny post!!  :D 

 

But it is a little bit of a game of clue here.  

 

Different roles within the organization should have differing perspectives, just as outsiders, whether they be educated fans, analysts, journalists, etc., have other perspectives, often just as valid as the ones from within.  Then of course add the posters that have connections, etc.  

 

There's a large degree of seeing the forest for the trees associated with this.  For example, the talk about Josh wanting Dorsey as OC.  If true, who knows why that may be.  It's likely that friendship was involved, a familiarity with one another, perhaps a fear on Josh's part about a new OC hired externally with the mysteries that it could bring.  We don't know.  

 

We only know what we know, and what the evidence (play) presents.  

 

But some are tasked with seeing that forest for the trees, aka the bigger picture.  

 

It's often talked about how a coach or GM, etc., are the "experts," but they all have specializations, and in hindsight, aka now, they don't really come across as experts in their specializations even, yet for a while they were blindly given the benefits of the doubt.  

 

Coaches and players are often too in the weeds, or can't see the forest for the trees, which should be considered.  

 

For example, every great WR believes that him getting the ball more translates to getting wins.  Same for RBs and carries.   Again, as merely two examples.  

 

But in any given situation or game, that may actually not be the case for reasons that should be obvious.  

 

Teams are a complex thing, but sometimes if an organization is dominated by a single strong personality, it fails to be as great as it could be if the inputs of the other elements are stifled or ignored.  There's at least circumstantial evidence that this is the case here.  

 

 

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1 hour ago, Virgil said:

 

I'm not necessarily blaming Josh, but I do see how you would take it that way.  In this scenario, Josh so happens to be the one delivering the plays and commanding the offense.  

 

While I'm happy the offense appears to be back, it just sits weird with me that it was fixed so easily and not really addressed sooner by anyone else

Here’s my take on this. It is McConservativity. He let go of Dorsey and gave the go ahead to let Brady and Josh be what they are because his seat is hot and his back is against a wall. Josh prolly got a rock hard 6’ erection when McLoser took the handcuffs off. But even though he allowed the offense to do what they do to win games. He is still in charge of the defense and the team overall. And his bend but don’t break conservative values took over at the end. 

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1 hour ago, Virgil said:

Let me start by saying, there's going to be A LOT of assumptions in this post.

 

Assuming the offense and Josh are back to where we saw them prior to Dorsey being hired, I'm starting to think that the players on the team knew Dorsey was the problem all along and only Diggs had the balls to say something.  If we believe what we hear from the media, Brady is using the same playbook and terminology, just calling the plays to his liking.  This isn't a new system by any means, yet Josh and the offense look magically like they did in 2021.  So, if nothing besides the person calling the plays changed, would that not imply the entire issue was Dorsey's ability to game plan and call plays, not the players or playbook itself?

 

With that, assuming that Dorsey was "Allen's choice" and was let down when Dorsey was fired, is it an issue that Josh didn't speak up sooner?  Or that Josh didn't recognize the issues with the offense sooner?  I understand that players will always take the blame for losses and don't ever throw anyone else under the bus.  But if the problem was as simple as changing the plays, why didn't Josh take more command on the field with audibles or going to management sooner?  

 

I don't think any of this makes sense.  Long story short.  For a simple fix, how was it not called out by the players sooner, unless it was behind closed doors.  

 

 

In my opinion, this is where the lines get a bit blurry. It seems like all the players and coaches genuinely liked Dorsey, and we're vested in his success. I think that because of this, he got a bit more time to try and overcome his shortcomings. Unfortunately it never happened, and it might've cost us the season. If you fire the guy too soon, than you also risk losing the locker room. Delicate balance. I feel like we did it a week or 2 too late.

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38 minutes ago, PBF81 said:

 

It's clear that McD hasn't a clue re: offense.  

 

Brady may be getting more lattitude from McD because McD knows that his a$$ is on the line at this point and he's willing to take that chance and relinquish all control of the O.  

 

 

Yup, I hear this but what if McD had the handcuffs on Dorsey, ultimatly firing Dorsey as the problem on offense, then telling Brady do what you gotta do with zero restraints to again make Dorsey look bad and McD looking justifyiable to everyone in firing Dorsey even though Dorsey wasn't the main problem. McD is a micromanager ego maniac that blames everyone else and never takes blame for his huge continous blunders.

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9 minutes ago, LarryMadman said:

Yup, I hear this but what if McD had the handcuffs on Dorsey, ultimatly firing Dorsey as the problem on offense, then telling Brady do what you gotta do with zero restraints to again make Dorsey look bad and McD looking justifyiable to everyone in firing Dorsey even though Dorsey wasn't the main problem. McD is a micromanager ego maniac that blames everyone else and never takes blame for his huge continous blunders.

 

I hear ya, but if he did that deliberately, then it seemingly backfired on him.

 

Keep in mind, McDimwit was the only one defending Dorsey Peterman-style, other than for Allen passively.  

 

In short, it would have been sabotaging his own team simply with the goal of pointing a finger.  

 

It seems to be more that first part of your last sentence.  

 

 

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I think Josh is a loyal company guy, it just sucks that he is so loyal to people that clearly don’t deserve it. If he does speak up he’s probably labeled a malcontent like Diggs by the media though. I’m in the camp that I’ve been on team Diggs the whole way and have wanted McDermott gone for a while now. 

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What are the odds offense puts up 30+ rest of year, we go 4-1 3-2 or worse, miss playoffs and Brady stays even through a HC change?

 

That's my new worst case scenario is letting a competent OC leave again. I guess If we bring in an OC to be HC there's really no chance he stays unless by sliver of chance their O strategies line up perfectly

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2 hours ago, Roundybout said:

Dorsey wasn’t THE problem but he was a HUGE problem. 

 

Ken Dorsey was the root of the problem on offense.

Yes, we still seem to have trouble with turnovers, penalties and drops.  This offense benefits tremendously by upgrading at WR2, and Josh Allen not having a weekly brain-fart throw.  But even with those issues, we can still score 30+ on good defenses when the playcalling isn't so stale and predictable.  

 

However, the defense's inability to close or show-up in big games is STILL a huge problem.

It was a problem with Leslie Frazier for the last several years.  And it's been even worse with Sean McDermott running the show by himself.

 

Firing Dorsey earlier could have saved the Broncos and Patriots games.

We would be sitting at 8-4 and stressing about the AFC East title instead of just making the playoffs.

But once the postseason rolled around, would it have really made a difference?  This defense would still collapse on itself just like it always does.

 

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26 minutes ago, BillsShredder83 said:

What are the odds offense puts up 30+ rest of year, we go 4-1 3-2 or worse, miss playoffs and Brady stays even through a HC change?

 

That's my new worst case scenario is letting a competent OC leave again. I guess If we bring in an OC to be HC there's really no chance he stays unless by sliver of chance their O strategies line up perfectly

My worst case scenario, we score 30, Brady gets head coaching gig elsewhere.  Was interviewed last year, so it is likely going to happen again.  He was our fall back when we all thought Dorsey was gone to be a head coach.  To add insult to this we keep McD out of fear of the going backward.

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17 hours ago, BfloBillsFan said:

Spot on!  If Brady was the OC, Bills would have beaten the NYJ (game 1), Pats, Jags.  That would be 7-3 and a good shot at the #1 seed.

Officiating was arguably a bigger factor today than Mc Dermott 

The Pats???  You think a different OC would have stopped Mac Jones from have a career day?  I know losing is a bummer but at least be more accurate in your scapegoats.

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2 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

We need to kill this myth that "Josh chose Dorsey".

 

McD chose Dorsey, and ran the idea by Josh, who gave the thumbs-up because he was already familiar.

 

The amount of influence Josh had in this hiring is reaching mythical heights with the fanbase, and it's just not accurate.

 

Josh got the simple treatment that Wilson wanted in Seattle and Watson wanted in Houston. "Hey, before you make a final decision you might want to run it by your highest paid player and team leader to make sure there arent any surprises and to better promote a united front."

 

That's the extent of it.

 

I believe both Josh and Dorsey have said in the media that Josh lobbied for him as OC.   Josh has also said "my career changed when he walked in the building" about Dorsey.

 

So I think (based on what's been put out there, but I ain't gonna dig for it) it was probably a little bit more than "McD chose Dorsey and ran the idea by Josh", though I can't speak for any "mythical heights" of the fanbase.

 

And I think it was pretty clear that McDermott and/or Beane had reservations about that plan, hence the hiring of two assistants with prior OC experience in Mike Shula and Joe Brady at the same time Dorsey was promoted.

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More of a modern day Dick Jauron.  Need an offensively minded head coach.  Need an aggressive D coordinator.  Also need a new special teams coach, who has been bad.

 

Still up in the air about Beane.  However, if it takes a change from the top to get what we need, so be it.  

 

Players look uptight around McD.  Need someone they respect.  The wait he treats Cook is obscene given he is not the only one making mistakes.

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I want the Bills to draft a WR in the 1st. Hire a new coach, ideally an Offensive minded coach but if they decide to go Defensive HC then keep Brady as OC. Diggs, Kincaid, and a new #2 WR would do some damage. 

 

Bills need a new HC more than anything. McDermott's defense falling apart will never win the Superbowl. 

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18 hours ago, BillMafia716ix said:

Loses to the Jets, Broncos, and Patriots really sunk the season. The offense has looked completely different since Joe Brady took over. Now the offense is clicking but we are now left with zero room for error the rest of the way. McDermott defense wasn’t solid today but they had been playing well up until today. We just put ourselves in a terrible hole due to the terrible offensive play earlier in the year. We waited too long to fire Dorsey

I've found myself thinking this, over and over.  I thought sticking with him after last season was the right thing to do, on the assumption that McDermott's evaluation of him was that he would make progress over what was a shaky first season.  

 

As it played out, what we saw in week one was what we saw starting in week five, but one bad game wasn't enough to fire him.  He followed that with three weeks of big wins, averaging around 40 points a game.  So, you're not going to fire him then.   Then came London, so you're not going to fire him after that.  The Giants game was the first clear sign that something was wrong, the first time McDermott might have said to himself, "I was wrong; he isn't progressing."  

 

But then you have a run of New England, Tampa Bay, and Cincinnati, where it became increasingly clear that Dorsey wasn't the answer.  After the Bengals, there was no choice, which means that McDermott waited too long.   He should have pulled the plugged at least a week earlier, maybe two, maybe even three.  Broncos, Bengals, Patriots all could have been wins, and the season would look a lot different.  

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14 hours ago, Beck Water said:

 

I'd like to tag a couple of former players here.  I am not a former player of team sports.  @Buffalo716 @HoofHearted - I know there are others I'm missing, sorry, speak up.

 

To my understanding, it's a very very slippery and dangerous path for a player to start speaking out against their coach, especially during the season.  That's how you can become a "locker room cancer".  It's even slipperier and more dangerous if the player speaks out against the coach during the season and the coach is then fired. 

 

Think rookie Baker Mayfield speaking out and getting Hue Jackson fired mid-season, then reportedly lobbying for Freddie Kitchens to take over as HC the following year.  Think Carson Wentz arguably getting Mike Groh fired as OC then Doug Pederson fired as HC.  Even Tom Brady's last year in NE when it was rumored he and Belicheck were on the outs, you didn't hear it publicly.  Brady finished the season, voted with his feet in FA, and made his point from afar.

McDermott has said that he meets with Allen weekly.  That would be the time for Allen to privately and 1:1 express any concerns he may have had.  And he may have expressed concerns during those meetings, we don't know and we likely never will.  As it should be.

 

But again, to my understanding, players who succeed and sustain success at a high level do so in part because they are willing to accept appropriate boundaries in the locker room and with the coaching relationship.  When players stop doing this, it can absolutely go off the rails quickly. 

 

And frankly, it really may not have had to do with Dorsey's play designs at all.  It may have been a point of behavior - Dorsey had weird dilated pupils in his press conferences - is he using?  Or communication - we all saw Dorsey having a total meltdown in the press box, and if his style of discussing Allen's play choices was similar or alternating nice guy/meltdown, after a while people just tune that out.  (Don't tell me I have greatness in me 5 minutes after you've been putting me through the shredder)

Or it may have been a point that the Jets game was 5 weeks after Josh injured his shoulder vs. the Giants, and reportedly 5 weeks is about the time it takes for that injury to heal (per Hasselbeck and per Josh's experience with a L shoulder sprain in 2020).

Coaches and players relationships certainly can mold mentorship and family into a high stressful environment based on results

 

Where both are highly dependent on each other... Coaches need players , who buy in and are willing to be coached .... Or their job is on the line ... And on the flip , players need to accept coaching and grow, because if you aren't getting better in the NFL... You're regressing

 

Airing dirty laundry in public ... Especially at the NFL level usually is never good...  These are grown men at the end of the day 

 

I prefer , like McDermott, meet me in the office and let's talk man to man and face to face ... And hash out differences

 

You will get a lot more respect out of the person you are talking to and might even grow the relationship... Taking it to the media is a surefire way to destroy it

Edited by Buffalo716
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2 hours ago, Beck Water said:

 

I believe both Josh and Dorsey have said in the media that Josh lobbied for him as OC.   Josh has also said "my career changed when he walked in the building" about Dorsey.

 

So I think (based on what's been put out there, but I ain't gonna dig for it) it was probably a little bit more than "McD chose Dorsey and ran the idea by Josh", though I can't speak for any "mythical heights" of the fanbase.

 

And I think it was pretty clear that McDermott and/or Beane had reservations about that plan, hence the hiring of two assistants with prior OC experience in Mike Shula and Joe Brady at the same time Dorsey was promoted.

 

Lobbied is in line with my take. I refer friends for jobs and talk them up all the time. It still isnt his decision.

 

Dorsey was brought in by McD in 2019. He was not a Daboll guy. He was a Carolina connection and had been sitting home jobless for 2 years. Josh didnt hire him then, and he didnt hire him as OC.

 

Good on them for hedging their bets, but next time maybe just go find a good OC.

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21 hours ago, BillMafia716ix said:

Loses to the Jets, Broncos, and Patriots really sunk the season. The offense has looked completely different since Joe Brady took over. Now the offense is clicking but we are now left with zero room for error the rest of the way. McDermott defense wasn’t solid today but they had been playing well up until today. We just put ourselves in a terrible hole due to the terrible offensive play earlier in the year. We waited too long to fire Dorsey

 

How many game losing drives has our defense given up?

 

The biggest difference in the offense between the last two games and when the offense did not perform before is turnovers.

 

 

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48 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Lobbied is in line with my take. I refer friends for jobs and talk them up all the time. It still isnt his decision.

 

Dorsey was brought in by McD in 2019. He was not a Daboll guy. He was a Carolina connection and had been sitting home jobless for 2 years. Josh didnt hire him then, and he didnt hire him as OC.

 

Good on them for hedging their bets, but next time maybe just go find a good OC.

 

OK, sure, if your point is that Allen didn't decide to hire him, McDermott did, sure.  We agree.  Hiring and firing assistant coaches was not and is not Josh's decision.

 

My point was that in your OP post I responded to, you said McDermott decided and ran it by Josh...sure, Josh doesn't (and shouldn't) have hiring and firing power, but I think (based on what Josh said at the time and after) he went to bat for Dorsey quite a bit more than "ran it by him" sounds like, and quite a bit beyond what I would personally do in "referring a friend" for a job and recommending them to the hiring manager.

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