Jackson beams with confidence during Browns intro

The 50-year-old has spent the past two seasons directing Cincinnati’s offense. Jackson has experience as a head coach, knows the AFC North and has fixed quarterbacks.

“I know what I can do. I don’t know, but I do need to get on that phone and start returning some of those text messages”.

As he talked, owner Jimmy Haslam sat to his right, newly hired director of football operations Sashi Brown sat to his left.

All of this is encouraging until the Browns’ track record is added to the mix: Jackson will be the team’s sixth head coach since 2008.

In two games against the Bengals, Jackson’s former club, Manziel completed 49.0% of his passes for one touchdown and two picks, with a 53.4 rating. The Browns got their man – in a hurry. It would be hard for the best National Football League head coaches to clean up that mess if given the time. “Hue was a great head coach”.

“Sometimes people chase it and you don’t hit it all the time, but if you don’t chase it you are going to hit the wrong thing”.

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.

“Except this”, Haslam said with a sheepish smile.

Jackson’s challenge in Cleveland will be turning around a team that can’t seem to get out of its own way. He is smart. He’s tough. He is confident. He is competitive. Jackson, arguably the best available candidate, brings a healthy dose of credibility to a franchise desperate for some.

Controversial quarterback Johnny Manziel is likely not to figure into the Browns future plans with Jackson on the scene. It’s been 13 years since the Raiders had a winning season, but they were 8-8 under Jackson in 2011, a record made even more impressive given that owner Al Davis died in the middle of that season.

But from what everyone saw today, Browns fans should be excited about what comes next.

After he walked into the team’s headquarters for the first time, Jackson was greeted by team employees, who applauded when he laid out his goals during an impromptu speech. And, boy, what a challenge.

“If I didn’t think that we had a chance to do something special here, I wouldn’t be here”.

According to an ESPN source close to the situation, the topic of Manziel was discussed at length in meetings between Jackson and Browns ownership.

“This organization and this city deserves a victor and that’s what I’m here to do”. “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”.

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’ll eventually (presumably) add another, if/when they ever hire a new General Manager. “I’m not anxious about who picks this player, picks that player. I have to give everybody on our football team the fair opportunity to truly learn who they are”. That’s what my expertise is. Jackson’s relationship with players is among his many selling points.

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