According to Elise Jesse of WLWT, Hue Jackson won't be filling the head coaching in Cincinnati. That's because Bengals management has reportedly relieved him of his duties as the "special assistant" to the recently-departed Marvin Lewis. Hue Jackson joined the Bengals in the midst of a difficult NFL campaign that saw him butt heads with Browns' quarterback Baker Mayfield, while the two were stationed together. Within days of getting the sack in Cleveland, Hue Jackson snapped up a "special assistant" job in Cincinnati made especially for him, because of his friendship with the Bengals' ownership group. Current Los Angeles Rams quarterback coach Zac Taylor is believed to be the frontrunner for the Bengals' coaching vacancy now that Hue Jackson has been effectively ruled out. Taylor is being targeted for several reasons. For starters, Taylor is an offensive guru who could help the Bengals galvanize their offensive talent (currently being misused). Also, Taylor spent time in the general era, as the offensive coordinator for the University of Cincinnati earlier in his career. As for Hue Jackson, NFL insiders think he might end up sitting out the 2019 Season, for reasons beyond his control. The current trend in the NFL is to fill coaching positions with younger footballing minds, in what appears to be a philosophical changing of the guard.<doc-sep>Hue Jackson is not returning to the Cincinnati Bengals, per Elise Jesse. My source says Hue Jackson is out. — Elise Jesse (@Elise_JesseWLWT) January 11, 2019 The Bengals actually interviewed Jackson for the head-coaching gig, but he won’t even get a position coach or coordinator spot on the new staff. The Bengals also let go of current offensive coordinator Bill Lazor, which led to speculation he could be Cincinnati’s new coordinator, but that is off the table now. Of the eight candidates the Bengals interviewed, Jackson was one of two with head coaching experience at the NFL level. In three-and-a-half years with the Oakland Raiders and Cleveland Browns, Jackson put together a record of 11-44-1. His winning percentage of .205 is the lowest in the NFL since the AFL merger in 1970. It didn’t begin too bad for Jackson, who was hired to coach the Raiders back in 2011. Oakland went 8-8 that season but fired Jackson anyways due to a power struggle with the team when they hired Reggie McKenzie as their general manager that offseason. From there, Jackson made his way back to Cincinnati, where he was Marvin Lewis’ wide receivers coach from 2004 to 2006. Jackson was hired as the Bengals’ defensive backs coach for the 2012 season and moved over the offensive side of the ball in 2013 to coach the running backs. Offensive coordinator Jay Gruden took the Washington head-coaching job at the start of the 2014 offseason and Jackson took his place. Jackson ran the Bengals’ offense from 2014 to 2015, the latter year saw the Bengals’ offense reach heights that a team under Lewis hadn’t reached since 2005. The Browns took a chance on Jackson following in 2016 and gave him his second go-around as head coach, and it went about as awful as it could’ve. After going 1-15 in his first year, the Browns became the second team in NFL history to go 0-16 in 2017. Jackson’s Browns went 0-4 against Lewis’ Bengals in that timeframe as well, as you could’ve guessed. Jackson’s firing seemed inevitable during the 2018 season if they didn’t show significant signs of improvement under his leadership. The team hired John Dorsey as their general manager and the Browns’ roster was beginning to resemble that of a capable one. Dorsey traded for quarterback Tyrod Taylor and drafted quarterback Baker Mayfield with the first overall pick a month later, but Jackson never gave Mayfield first-team reps until Taylor suffered a concussion in Week 3. Mayfield took over and ran with the job, but the team was still vastly underperforming under Jackson. Following a loss to the Steelers, Jackson (and offensive coordinator Todd Haley) was fired after winning just three of his 40 games with the organization. The Browns went on to close out the year 5-3 and finished 7-8-1 under interim head coach Gregg Williams. Jackson wasn’t unemployed for long, as his old friend Lewis called him up two weeks later and made him his “special assistant” as he assumed duties as the defensive coordinator after the Bengals fired Teryl Austin from that position. Jackson’s true role in his third stint with Cincinnati isn’t exactly known, but he assisted Lewis with the defense in terms of in-game management. As soon as Jackson was re-integrated within the franchise, speculation began brewing that he would officially become Lewis’ heir as head coach. There was talk of a succession plan back in 2016 before Jackson went to Cleveland, but that fell through as Jackson decided to make his own path in Cleveland. Little did he know he would proceed to utterly fall on his face and blame practically everyone he possibly could for his failures on his way out just two-and-a-half years laters. Cincinnati was the only team to inquire Jackson about their opening at head coach, and considering the major blemishes on his résumé and how he left Cleveland, that’s not at all surprising. This is because Cincinnati is Jackson’s home, in the sense that it’s where he goes when he’s out of a job. No other team would hire Jackson after what happened with the Browns, and thankfully, that included the Bengals, who are set to hire Rams quarterbacks coach Zac Taylor. We also don’t have to worry about Vance Joseph, who is now defensive coordinator of the Cardinals. Depending on who you asked, Joseph and Jackson were the early favorites to be the Bengals’ next coach, but they’ll both be elsewhere in 2019.<doc-sep>Getty Images The Browns fired Hue Jackson on Oct. 29. The Bengals fired him today, Elise Jesse of WLWT reports. That means Jackson has lost two jobs in less than three months. Neither firing should have come as a surprise to Jackson. He went 3-36-1 in Cleveland, and Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis hired Jackson as special assistant to the head coach on Nov. 13. Lewis parted ways with the team after the season, and the Bengals are set to hire Rams assistant Zac Taylor when Los Angeles’ season ends. Jackson interviewed for the head coaching vacancy in Cincinnati, and when the Bengals went another direction, it made sense Jackson would go in a different direction. That might mean sitting out this season.<doc-sep>
Former Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson reportedly has been relieved of his duties with the Cincinnati Bengals. CLEVELAND — Former Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson has been relieved of his coaching duties with the Cincinnati Bengals. According to Elise Jesse of WLWT, the Bengals informed him of the decision on Friday afternoon. Jackson rejoined the Bengals, the very team he left to take over the Browns, just eight days after being dismissed on Monday, October 29, 2018. Following his ouster in Cleveland, Jackson was hired as a special assistant to Bengals coach Marvin Lewis. Lewis and the Bengals parted ways earlier this offseason. Jackson was let go by the Browns, along with former offensive coordinator Todd Haley, in an unprecedented midseason coaching upheaval because general manager John Dorsey and owner Jimmy Haslam felt the “internal discord” among the top two offensive coaches on the staff was holding back a team that finished 7-8-1 despite a 2-5-1 start. Hired in January of 2016 to replace Mike Pettine, Jackson posted a 3-36-1 record and was 1-13-1 within the AFC North Division in his two-plus years as head coach of the Browns. Included in that record were the Browns’ two worst seasons in franchise history, a 1-15 mark in 2016 and only the second 0-16 season in NFL history in 2017. A man of his word in that regard, Jackson jumped into Lake Erie with more than 100 members of the organization to “cleanse the losing” out of the Browns following the 0-16 season in 2017. Known for his ability to develop quarterbacks, Jackson struggled to get consistent play out of the position and started a rookie in each of his three seasons with the Browns, Cody Kessler in 2016, DeShone Kizer in 2017 and Baker Mayfield this past year. Mayfield was the only one of those three to win an NFL start for the Browns. With a season-ending 28-24 loss to the Steelers on December 31, 2017, the Browns went winless in a 16-game season for the first time in franchise history, and their 17th consecutive loss overall dropped the organization to a league-worst 1-31 since the opening game of 2016. Jackson was a part of several dubious records during his time with the Browns, as the time had an NFL-record 36 straight Sunday losses, and their 4-49 mark in 53 outings from 2014 to 2017 was the worst in the league in that four-year span.