Cincinnati Bengals Hire Hue Jackson As ‘Special Assistant’ To Head Coach Marvin Lewis

The Cincinnati Bengals hired Hue Jackson on Tuesday morning as special assistant to head coach Marvin Lewis. 

Ex-Browns coach Hue Jackson joins bengals

Jackson recently ended a record-breaking stretch, holding a head coaching job for two and a half years while going 3-36-1. During his time, he led the Cleveland Browns to the last place in the NFL in points scored, second to last place in points allowed, and last place in wins percentage.  He’s also the only coach to go 0-14 twice.

When Jackson was offered the Browns job, he had a reputation as a “self-promoter” and as an “offensive guru”.  However, as the time passed, he removed himself from game planning and the offensive installs. At the start of his last season, the offensive play-calling was given to offensive coordinator Todd Haley. Eventually, that became a source of conflict, with Jackson trying to reinsert himself into the offense once some success, albeit small, was gained. That caused a disconnect and frustrated both players and coaches.

Finally, the Browns moved on from Jackson and Haley. Jackson went to the front office to fire Haley, who he brought onto the team, and instead, the front office fired the both of them. Jackson proceeded to go on a media tour where he blamed everyone but himself for the lack of success during his tenure with the Browns.

Now, Hue Jackson is being brought into Cincinnati as a special assistant to the head coach. Lewis, who calls Jackson his brother and has a weekly phone call with him, says Jackson, the offensive guru, will “work with the defense”. In their last game, the Bengals allowed Drew Brees to score more touchdowns than throw incompletions and he led his team to 51 points.

Before Cleveland, Jackson worked as a wide receivers coach under Lewis from 2004 to 2006. He bounced around the league until 2011, before returning to the Bengals as a secondary assistant and special teams coach. He worked his way up to running backs coach and offensive coordinator before moving to Cleveland. The Bengals play the Browns twice before the season ends. Cincinnati can only hope Jackson can slow down the Browns as much as he did when he was their coach.