Former Oakland Raiders coach Hue Jackson hired by Browns

If Hue Jackson were to fail with the Cleveland Cavaliers and become yet another one of their head coaches that lasts only two seasons, then people might be hesitant to hire him again.

Owner Jimmy Haslam walked new Browns coach Hue Jackson to the entrance to team headquarters, opened the door and insisted Jackson go inside first.

The Cleveland Browns’ coaching search has come to an end with the appointment of Hue Jackson as Mike Pettine’s replacement.

After a second meeting with Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, Jackson backed out an interview scheduled for Thursday with the New York Giants. “Among them are cornerback Justin Gilbert, receiver Josh Gordon (presuming the National Football League reinstates him following his year”™s suspension) and perhaps quarterback-turned-receiver Terrelle Pryor, who seemed to lack confidence when he finally got his chance at the end of the season. This season, quarterback Andy Dalton became an MVP candidate in Jackson’s offense. For now, that’s Jackson, who has spent 15 seasons coaching in the National Football League, establishing himself as one of the profession’s rising stars. Jackson has experience as a head coach, knows the AFC North and has fixed quarterbacks.

“There’s a lot of work to do”.

“I’ve been in the AFC North. I kind of know the lay of the land and I know where we and where we’re trying to go”, Jackson said.

But even if the next coordinator isn’t a pusher like Jackson, Whitworth rightly believes it’s on the players to pick up where Jackson left off. If there is a lesson their former coach taught them, that has to be it if 2016 is to be an even greater year than 2015.

“Where do you find an unbelievable fan base?” he said.

While much of the emphasis after the game was on the Bengals’ eight-game playoff losing streak or the team’s string of seven consecutive wild-card round defeats, Jackson performed wonders with his quarterbacks. I certainly think not!

With the coach’s years of experience in the division and as accomplished a resume as anyone the Browns have hired of late, there’s reason for optimism as the Jackson era in Cleveland begins.

This speaks to the Browns’ new front office of analytically oriented executives such as Paul DePodesta and Sashi Brown having the same feelings about their new coach. Jackson said the Raiders thought about moving up from the second round to the first to draft Kaepernick in 2011.

While Jackson was in Cleveland while Manziel had his off the field issues and stunts, he probably heard enough about them, not to mention plenty in the organization are still sticking around.

Yes, other team’s were interested, but no one knows how the dominoes would’ve fallen had Jackson rejected Cleveland.

“What a tremendous honour and privilege to be the head coach of the Cleveland Browns and a part of the Dawg Pound”, Jackson said.

Jackson will have the authority to pick his own coaching staff. “How fast that process is going to go, I don’t know, but I do need to get on that phone and start returning some of those text messages”.

It’s been a tough year for those who root for the orange and brown. “What we’ve built and the way we do things you would hope we are going to do everything we can to continue that no matter who is here”.