Hue Jackson says his “biggest regret” is leaving the Bengals for the Browns

Former Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator, Hue Jackson, is someone that has had an impact all over Ohio.

In 2015, Jackson’s offense helped push the Bengals to a 12-4 record and made him one of the top head coaching candidates in the league.

He interviewed for several head coaching opportunities before ultimately deciding to become the head coach of the Cleveland Browns.

During his time with the Browns he posted a 1-31 record in his first two seasons and was then fired in season three after starting 2-5-1 in 2018.

Jackson recently made an appearance on the Orange is the New Black Podcast where he talked about some of his regrets he made in his coaching career.

“My top one is leaving Cincinnati to go to Cleveland,” Jackson said bluntly. “I was with a really good football team, with a good quarterback who had won a lot of games. Very talented players on offense. Andrew Whitworth, I hope if I would’ve stayed, I could’ve convinced the organization to keep him because he was a catalyst for a lot of the things we were doing and he was a tremendous player.”

The Bengals wanted to keep Jackson as it was their plan to make him the next head coach succeeding Marvin Lewis. However, given the relationship between Jackson and Lewis, Jackson never felt comfortable with that path.

“I think it was the right time for me. think everybody knows [about] me and Marvin’s relationship. I didn’t want Marvin felling like I was ever undercutting him because our friendship is more important than a job. At the time there was discussions about me staying. I just didn’t feel comfortable with it. I’m very grateful and thankful for the Browns family for extending an opportunity. I just thought it wasn’t right. It just didn’t feel right. I made a decision to go on.”

He continued, “I know one thing. We were winning in Cincinnati, and for whatever reason, I couldn’t get that to happen in Cleveland.”

Jackson went on to talk about why he couldn’t get to winning with the Browns and noting the roster differences between them and the Bengals at the time.

“I’m not going to do a deep dive into that,” Jackson said. “What I would say to anybody is just go look at the roster. Go look at 2016 and 2017’s roster. When I was a winning coach, whether it was in Oakland or in Cincinnati, it’s because we had good players.”

While Jackson does deserve some blame for the lack of success with the Browns, it isn’t all his fault that the opportunity failed like it did. However, it will be impossible for Jackson to recover from a 3-36-1 record as a head coach.

You can check out the full interview with Jackson below: