Cincinnati Bengals Desperately Tried To Keep Hue Jackson From Joining Cleveland Browns

Jackson has one season of head coaching experience, with the Oakland Raiders in 2011, and almost led them to their only playoff berth since their Super Bowl appearance following the 2002 season.

It’s official. The Cleveland Browns have stopped their head coaching search and Hue Jackson has apparently settled for the first contract put in front of him.

Jackson had reportedly been the “clear front-runner” for the head coaching job with the San Francisco 49ers and had an interview scheduled Wednesday with the Giants.

Jackson becomes the Browns’ eighth coach since 1999 and sixth since 2008. Jackson has experience as a head coach, knows the AFC North and has fixed quarterbacks.

The 50-year-old Jackson has earned a reputation for being an offensive innovator as well as being tough but fair with his players.

The top candidates appear to be ex-Philadelphia coach Chip Kelly, ex-New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin and Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter.

Jackson will be the Browns’ fourth coach since Jimmy Halsam took over in October, 2012 and any comfort level between him and Pat Shurmur, Rob Chudzinski or Mike Pettine was short-lived.

Jackson’s California roots are deep outside of Glendale, as the veteran has held coaching or coordinator duties in state at Pacific University, Cal State Fullerton, California Berkeley and USC. The Raiders escaped being a double digit loss team to being a. 500 team in his two season in Oakland.

Haslam had his second meeting with Jackson on Wednesday in Cincinnati, and after excusing the well-liked coach from the room, Cleveland’s owner turned to two of his executives and announced they were done looking. But I’m going to do whatever I think is right for this organization.

“I am going to have the opportunity to work with some of the smartest men in football (in Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta)”, Jackson said.

Because, let’s face it, given the sorry state of the franchise, Hue Jackson wasn’t walking through that.

Jackson has to quickly assemble a coaching staff, and as Haslam looks for a GM who will acquire talent, there will be other decisions.

Sports on the news that Cleveland has found its new head coach.

Jackson replaces Pettine, fired after going 10-22.

Jackson, who was on the short list of almost every team with a coaching vacancy this off-season, set the tone for the Bengals’ season with his cryptic preseason proclamation that Cincinnati would “open Pandora’s box more” on offense and then backed that metaphor up with a high-scoring 8-0 start and an eventual division title.

The Browns own the second overall pick in the 2016 draft and probably will have an opportunity to select the top-rated quarterback. Jackson is the fifth Browns head coach since 2009-none of the previous ones had a winning percentage higher than. “To me, that told me that this building is electric and they want to win and they expect to win and they understand that there’s a lot of work to do but everybody’s ready to roll up their sleeves and go to work”.