Hue Jackson named Browns head coach

The Browns were the second team to interview Jackson on Sunday in the hours after the Bengals suffered a shocking last-minute home loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wildcard round of the AFC Playoffs at Paul Brown Stadium, and they were the last to do so. Cleveland owns the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s draft and probably will use it on a quarterback – possibly California’s Jared Goff or Memphis’ Paxton Lynch.

Jackson joked that he expects to get to know this year’s college class “pretty well, pretty soon”.

Jackson was introduced at a news conference on January 13 in Berea and was asked three separate questions about whether he wants to retain Manziel for a third season with the Browns.

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 must have really liked what he saw on Cleveland’s roster to pick the Browns.

“I like challenges”, he said. “We as an organization have a lot of work to do to make sure that”™s where we need to be or where we don”™t need to be. If such a move does come to fruition, don’t be surprised to see many more Bengals trade in their stripes for dog collars in following their former position coach up Interstate-71 to Cleveland.

“He embodies all the qualities that will provide strong leadership for our football team”, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam said in a statement.

The club gave Manziel the cold shoulder when he showed up the Monday after the season – getaway day – after going to Las Vegas for the weekend.

“I’ve never experienced anything like that before in my life”, Jackson said.

“I think what our fans will be proud of and excited about is we’re going to be a football team that’s going to play very exciting football”, Jackson stated.

The foursome, with help from consultant Jed Hughes, ran a streamlined search that produced Jackson, offensive coordinator of the Bengals the last two years, after interviews with seven candidates in five days.

Controversial quarterback Johnny Manziel is likely not to figure into the Browns future plans with Jackson on the scene. Owner Al Davis died that year and son Mark Davis took over and hired Reggie McKenzie as general manager.

In reality, and to purposely contradict myself, it’s all moot and really doesn’t mean anything more than an opportunity to bring attention to the fact that the Dolphins opted to go with their top choice and not interview Jackson first. He was sacked after one season and returned to Cincinnati.

If we can keep this tortured metaphor going as it applies to Jimmy Haslam’s new order, think of Sashi Brown as the ref. “He’s smart, he’s tough, he’s confident, he’s competitive….” Shields, who hasn’t played since suffering a concussion December 13, was limited in practice Wednesday. “Sometimes the arrow does go down on some players and then when they do, you’ve got to get them back and focused the best they can and try to create environments for your players to be all they can be”.

But with losing season in the books the Browns are making changes, starting with a new coach.