Browns to hire one-time 49ers candidate Hue Jackson

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.

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

When Hue Jackson was sacked by the Oakland Raiders after an 8-8 season, the cult figure amongst some pockets of the Raider Nation probably didn’t expect to be waiting this long for his next head coaching job.

The Browns added another chef to the Kardiac Kitchen on Wednesday, hiring Hue Jackson to serve as head coach.

When Jackson excused himself from the room, Haslam turned to two of his top executives: newly promoted vice president of football operations Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta, a baseball analytics expert hired as Cleveland’s new strategy director and declared the search was over. “I know there’s a rabid fan base that is excited, Dawg Pound, let me give you a first pump because I’m excited and I want to jump over in that pound when I get the opportunity”, Jackson said during his introduction as head coach.

Jackson had also interviewed with San Francisco on Sunday, but media reports on Tuesday said that 49ers were out of the running after Cleveland had a second meeting with Jackson, also on Tuesday. At the best he could have gone to the New York Giants, a spot with a budding roster and an owner that has given Tom Coughlin a great place to call work for the last decade plus.

Jackson was the Raiders’ offensive coordinator in 2010, as well as the quarterbacks coach of the Baltimore Ravens (2008-2009), and the offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons (2007).

Maybe Jackson’s best coaching job was with McCarron, as the former Alabama quarterback played in the final four games of the season with three straight starts.

He went 8-8 but was sacked after owner Al Davis died during the season, son Mark took over, hired general Reggie McKenzie and they wanted a new coach.

Jackson has to quickly assemble a coaching staff, and as Haslam looks for a GM who will acquire talent, there will be other decisions. They hold the No. 2 pick in the draft, along with No. 32, and should have their choice of quarterbacks, including California’s Jared Goff and Memphis’ Paxton Lynch.

“I like challenges”, he said.

Elsewhere • The Chargers are bringing back Ken Whisenhunt as their offensive coordinator, who had that position before leaving after the 2013 season to become the Titans’ head coach. “I said, ‘This is what I think we can do here”.

The Dolphins won their first two games with electrifying performances against Tennessee and Houston and then fell back to earth with a 37-6 loss at New England and plummeted from there.

The only real downside I can see to Hue Jackson’s hiring as the next coach of the Cleveland Browns is that he agreed to coach them. He replaces Mike Pettine, who was sacked on January 3 after going 10-22 in his two seasons. I think our players will love playing for him. “We got the right guy for the Cleveland Browns”. Officials said they suspect suicide. This is as far as we’re going to go here now with this, because I don’t want to get involved in any type of tampering situation.