According to several reports, it is clear Jackson wants no part of Johnny Drama.
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Jackson was supposed to fly to NY and meet with the Giants on Thursday morning after previously talking to the San Francisco 49ers about their vacancy. However, the Browns made sure that didn’t happen. The Browns fired Mike Pettine after a 3-13 season.
While Hue Jackson would love the idea of staying with his players and expanding his offensive scheme, he knew that the time to make the jump was now because he is 50 years old.
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. But the optimism coming out of the team’s headquarters on Wednesday was impossible to miss as Jackson was introduced as the newest head coach in franchise history. So now that Jackson is gone, having accepted Wednesday the Cleveland Browns’ head-coaching position, what will that mean for Dalton?
“He embodies all the qualities that will provide strong leadership for our football team”, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam said in a statement.
There will be time to keep a won-lost record on Jackson come September. “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”. In 2011 he was head coach of the Oakland Raiders, whose organizational dysfunction in this century almost matches that of the Browns. They also have a unique front office structure – with Brown, a lawyer, and DePodesta, a lifetime baseball executive, at the top – and an unprecedented commitment to analytics.
The Giants were also interested in Jackson, but as previously mentioned, Haslam convinced Jackson to skip his interview on Wednesday and sign a contract with the Browns.
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.
Jackson set big goals in an address to team employees.
“He is an outstanding coach and a better friend”, Lewis said.
The next hire, GM, won’t have power.
“All I want to do is win”, Jackson said.
So what’s a nice coach like Jackson doing in a place like this?
Previous head coaches have talked about understanding the challenge, but after spending the past four years with the Cincinnati Bengals, Jackson has lived the challenge and truly knows what he and the team are up against.
Jackson has earned his second shot as a head coach, and with one respectable 8-8 season in Oakland on his resume, there is reason to believe that the former Raiders head coach should be able to turn around the Browns. He will have input as well as a yet-to-be-hired general manager.
Jackson sounded open to the Browns using the second pick of the draft on a quarterback, possibly Jared Goff of California. He has 1,675 yards on 57.0% passing, with seven touchdowns and five interceptions, plus 259 yards and a score by rushing.
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Jackson plans to win with the Browns, no matter the work it will take and the challenges the organization faces.
