Hue Jackson wanted Colin Kaepernick while with the Oakland Raiders

Hue Jackson just can't help himself sometimes.

While the Oakland Raiders are comfortably maintaining their reputation with an owner that Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports compared to Tommy Boy, Cincinnati Bengals running backs coach Hue Jackson reflects on the 2011 NFL draft when he was the head coach. The player that they wanted: quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

"I think about it all the time, believe me,'' Hue Jackson told Peter King Sunday night. "No question in my mind we wanted it to happen, and no question I thought it could happen. We wanted the kid in the worst way.''

"Coach Jackson told me before the draft they were going to do everything they could to try to get me,'' said Kaepernick. "I thought there was a good chance they'd pick me. I never heard anything from the 49ers before the draft after I worked out for them [at Nevada]. I just figured they weren't interested."

When the San Francisco 49ers successfully moved up in the second round, former owner Al Davis was angry.

"I don't know that he threw anything,'' said Jackson. "But he was upset. So was I. Scouting him, I fell in love with the kid. Leader, won a ton of games at Nevada, really impressive when you talked to him, strong, all the tools to win in the NFL. No doubt in my mind he was going to be good.''

Oakland instead traded for Carson Palmer during the regular season, giving Cincinnati a one and two, which led to cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick and running back Giovani Bernard.

The Raiders made news over the weekend after Mark Davis fired public relations director Zak Gilbert. According to an SFGate.com story, Davis was "unhappy with a Sports Illustrated story" that failed to give a rousing perspective of his father, but praised general manager Reggie McKenzie. After the story was published, Gilbert was placed on leave until a decision was made.

The firing was met with universal scorn from NFL insiders and the media around the league, but not so much Raiders fans.

+ Joe Reedy with the Cincinnati Enquirer publishes a nice essay about Adam Zimmer about a collection of subjects from his relationship with his father to an encompassing desire to pave his own road.

Said Adam Zimmer: "I didn’t want to be that guy that was just there because my dad was there. I’ve been on staffs where that was the case, and they had no credentials to be a coach, but they followed their dad around from here to here to here. I didn’t want to be one of those guys. I kind of wanted to learn how to do things my way and not just the way he does it. Kind of get my own personality as a coach before I got on the same staff with him."

Despite that, the players are listening to the younger Zimmer, even some of the team's best defensive backs. Reedy also points out some of the contributions that Adam is currently making.

One of the biggest contributions Adam Zimmer has made during the offseason program is he put together a PowerPoint presentation before the start of OTAs on each coverage. He put together a point-by-point tutorial for each player, showing the alignment and what they’re supposed to be doing. There were then examples of each coverage with video.

The presentation impressed cornerback Leon Hall, who had known Adam Zimmer a little bit before he joined the staff.

+ I found Dave Lapham's perspective on the Bengals crop of tight ends extremely interesting, if not a little jaw-dropping. Lapham played with some of the franchise's best tight ends from Bob Trumpy, Dan Ross to Rodney Holman; though only Ross and Holman actually played together, and that was for only a few seasons.

"Not only is it the best group of tight ends the Bengals have ever had, but I think it's potentially one of the best groups in the league," Lapham says. "Danny and Rodney overlapped only briefly (two-and-a-half seasons), but Danny was at the end of the line. In Gresham and Eifert you've got two top tight ends that could conceivably be playing together in their primes for something like seven years with the caveat being if the NFL keeps the two tight-end trend going."

+ San Diego Chargers defensive end Dwight Freeney is complaining that all of the owners are colluding to ensure that free agents didn't receive the money that was expected.

"I basically think the owners got together and decided not to spend the cash on free agents," Freeney said. "I definitely think that's part of it. I think the owners made a pact. There's only 32 of them and none of them broke ranks. I think they all decided not to spend money."

I can understand a prevailing perspective from a player that was directly affected by free agency. On the other hand, I find it hard to believe that 32 owners sat around a table, conducting seances and twisting their handlebar mustaches.

+ Pittsburgh Steelers offensive tackle Mike Adams is currently recovering from non-life threatening stab wounds after a robber attempted to steal his truck.

+ With Anquan Boldin traded to the San Francisco 49ers, the Baltimore Ravens are going to ask more out of wide receiver Torrey Smith.