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.

The Cincinnati Bengals revealed Tuesday that they have signed head coach Marvin Lewis to a two-year contract extension through the 2019 season.

Marvin Lewis Extension news

The Bengals finished 7-9 and third in the AFC North this season, 59-year-old Lewis’ 15th at the helm. Cincinnati has missed the playoffs for the second straight year, after having reached the postseason the previous five years.

The move may come as a surprise to many, since ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Dec. 17 that Lewis was “planning to leave the Bengals after this season to pursue opportunities elsewhere.”

Lewis’s defense allowed a 16th-ranked 21.8 points per game.

The Bengals made some major coaching changes early this season: offensive coordinator Ken Zampese was fired and replaced by Bill Lazor two weeks into the campaign.

Cincinnati also ranked dead last in total offense (280.5 yards per game) with bottom-six marks in both rushing and passing.

Clearly, the Bengals have a lot of work to do in order to become serious contenders in 2018.

“My job is to win a world championship,” Lewis said Tuesday. “We have a talented roster full of veteran leaders and emerging young stars and I am committed to making the necessary improvements to put this team in the best position to win.”

One person who condemned the Bengals’ decision to extend Lewis was ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith. The outspoken pundit said loudly and clearly on “First Take” on Tuesday morning that the head coach should have been fired a long time ago.

“He should be gone,” said Smith. “And it’s a damn shame that he’s not.”

Smith also compared Lewis to other NFL head coaches and said the Bengals don’t care about their fans. Watch Smith sound off on Lewis here:

And another Smith diatribe against the Bengals:

Lewis has formerly served as linebackers coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers and for several college teams including Pittsburgh and Idaho State. He was also defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens and Washington Redskins.

It appears that Coach Mike Pettine has finally made the change from Brian Hoyer to Johnny Manziel. After Monday’s press conference, there has been rampant speculation that Pettine was leaning towards Manziel for Sunday’s division game against the Cincinnati Bengals: he stated, “We’re in a results business. We’ve lost two in a row. We all know what the numbers have been in the pass game. For us to be successful they have to improve… [Referring to the QB switch] I think it’s natural to lean the other way, given the results. I still want to make sure we do our due diligence and get a chance to talk to everybody involved with it.”

After starting the season 7-4, the Browns have lost two straight: even with the winning record, Hoyer has struggled the last five games, with one touchdown, eight interceptions and a passer rating of 57.7. So after the latest loss to the Indianapolis Colts, it is not surprising to see Pettine going back to the drawing board: with the Bengals at 8-4-1, the Browns are hoping to make one final push for the playoffs.

So according to Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer, Manziel will have his first career start Sunday. But Johnny Football has seen limited play before: with majority of his snaps coming during the Browns’ loss to the Bills two weeks ago. There the young QB replaced a struggling Hoyer and went five for eight, with 63 passing yards and a rushing touchdown: hardly ground breaking stats, but it certainly injected some needed life into the Browns’ offense.

Only time will tell if the Browns made the right decision drafting the young hot head with the 22nd pick: but it is nice to write about something other than Johnny’s off the field antics. At the same time, it does not appear that the Bengals are worried about the quarterback switch. When asked about it yesterday, Bengals Coach Marvin Lewis stated, “You gotta go defend the offense. You don’t defend the player. Particularly a midget.” He has since apologized for his comments: but it has only added fuel to the fire, creating more reasons to watch Manziel’s first start.