On January 23, Hue Jackson interviewed with the San Francisco 49ers for their vacant offensive coordinator position. Right now, the 49ers have three candidates, Jackson, Jeff Jagodzinski and Clyde Christensen. As far as we know, nothing has moved since the interviews, and we assume that Jackson being the last name interviewed with a realistic shot at the position (aka, not including Dan Reeves). We only bring this up because of the unsubstantiated report that has yet to be confirmed that the Bengals' Marvin Lewis was interested in bringing Jackson back as the team's offensive coordinator, removing Bob Bratkowski from the post; which we still believe is a long shot.
The Examiner says that the 49ers are looking for a run-oriented offense. Jackson was the Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator in 2007, and the Washington Redskins coordinator in 2003; as well as Cal's offensive coordinator in 1996. The Falcons had the 26th best rushing offense in 2007, averaging 95.0 yards per game rushing on average 24.1 times per game; 29th best. Neither rush attempts or the Washington Redskins rushing offense improved much; all of which makes us think that the run-oriented offense that the 49ers are looking might not be behind Jackson's history. Of course, that's not a good sample size compared to a coordinator's ideology, but it's all we have to go with.
Anyway, it's not like the Bengals will cut ties with Mike Brown favorite Bob Bratkowski.So if you ask me why in the hell we're talking about it, I'd be fine with that. We simply call it a fool's hope.
But what of Ken Zampese? When one door was shut after Brian Schottenheimer agreed to stay as the Jets offensive coordinator, it was learned that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were interested in the Bengals quarterback coach. After it was reported that Zampese would interview early this week, meaning Monday and/or Tuesday and Wednesday if "early" was a loose-fitting term.
Including Zampese, Chan Gailey and Greg Olson look to be leading candidates after Rod Chudzinski took the job as the tight ends coach in San Diego. We figure to learn of Zampese's fait relatively soon.