Hue Jackson is back in the Queen City.
Jackson is joining the Bengals’ coaching staff as special assistant to the head coach. The news was confirmed by the Bengals on Tuesday morning,
Per Bengals.com, his role will be something along these lines:
It’s believed Jackson arrives at Paul Brown Stadium Tuesday morning to be bestowed a title similar to special assistant. Jackson’s role is apparently going to focus on helping Lewis assimilate his head-coaching duties with managing and calling the defense.
He begins his new job with the Bengals today.
“I have a great comfort level with Hue and his ability to assist me with the day-to-day responsibilities on defense, including analyzing our opponents and helping me on game days with the players and defensive coaches,” Lewis said in a statement on Tuesday.
Jackson is also excited to have a new job after the Browns fired him about two weeks ago.
“I’m pleased to have the opportunity to join the Bengals this season. There is a lot of talent on this team, and I look forward to doing my part to help it finish the season strong,” Jackson said.
When asked on Monday if Jackson could return to the Bengals, head coach and now defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis said, “You’ll just have to watch and see.”
Well, the answer is yes and we’re sure to see it on Sunday in Baltimore. This comes after the Bengals parted ways with Teryl Austin on Monday, following the team’s 51-14 loss to the Saints on Sunday.
“A lot of things happen when you’re on defense. I had my back turned yesterday to the offense a couple times, trying to bring the defense together,” Lewis said when asked about how things will be more complicated as he takes on the defensive coordinator duties. “Things happen. It could be whether or not we made a catch, and if we made a first down or not. If I’ve got my back turned, I have to make the decision if we’re going for it. Are we in four-down territory? I have to let Bill (offensive coordinator Bill Lazor) know and the quarterback know that they have three downs here. Those kind of things.”
It seems Jackson will act as an extra set of eyes for Lewis and the Bengals.
“If I have my backed turned by making corrections or whatever, I can’t do that. I’m going to try to minimize that as much as possible. I feel strongly that I have to make the correction to coach the defense right now.”
Non-coincidentally, Lewis broke his streak of seven-straight winning challenges to the officials’ decisions when he was busy helping Austin on Sunday against the Saints.
Jackson’s first stint in Cincy lasted from 2004-06 when he was the wide receivers coach for three seasons. Under Jackson’s watch, Chad Johnson and T. J. Houshmandzadeh became one of the most prolific wide-receiving tandems in the NFL and helped the Bengals win their first division title and playoff berth in over a decade.
Jackson would then become the Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator in 2007, but that lasted only one season after Bobby Petrino quit, leading to a complete staff shakeup. That left Jackson to take the quarterbacks coach job with the Ravens in 2008. He would eventually become the Raiders offensive coordinator in 2010 before becoming their head coach in 2011.
However, Jackson took over a franchise that was in a rebuild and going through significant changes from the top down. That helped lead to Jackson being fired after an 8-8 season.
After Jackson was fired, he re-joined the Bengals in 2012 and was always looked at as the next man in line for the offensive coordinator job, which Jay Gruden held. He eventually became the head coach of Washington in 2014, allowing Jackson to take over and have a successful two-year run from 2014-15.
That led to him being named head coach of the Cleveland Browns, but he was able to win just three games in over three seasons at the helm before being fired in the middle of the 2018 campaign. One of those games was against the Ravens who the Bengals play on Sunday. The Bengals then face Jackson’s former team, the Browns in Week 12.
Jackson is back. Are you happy?
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