Cleveland Browns: Hue Jackson lays out why he's a terrible coach

Hue Jackson, the master of telling on himself, admitted today that he’s a horrible coach for the Cleveland Browns that only knows how to do things one way.

A day after getting Sashi Brown fired and his new general manager, John Dorsey, was hired, Hue Jackson admitted why the Cleveland Browns are in the state they are. Jackson, in what is becoming a weekly tradition of embarrassing press conference moments, when asked what he wanted from his new general manager, answered that the new GM “told him his goal is tor bring him the players that fit the coaches,” per Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com.

The head coach of an NFL football team needs to get players to fit him. In a league filled with coaches adjusting to their players almost on the fly, Jackson is admitting flat out he can’t. And this has been pretty clear year with his mishandling of DeShone Kizer. Instead of catering the offense to his rookie quarterback, Hue demanded the rookie adjust to him. And when it failed, Hue panicked, buried Kizer and tried to go trade for A.J. McCarron.

So while people watch Kizer struggle out there every week, many have criticized the now former head of the Browns personnel department, Sashi Brown, for not picking Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson. Jackson is admitting that he wouldn’t have adjusted and simply didn’t want Watson, which was already known, but people like to conveniently forget.

Unfortunately, Watson suffered a season-ending knee injury, but Bill O’Brien in Houston completely transformed his offense to fit Watson. This included any number of concepts Watson used at Clemson and more collegiate offensive plays, which resulted in huge results. Hue would’ve made Watson play the same, traditional style pocket passer he’s had for Kizer and it would’ve been a disaster, which is why Jackson didn’t want Watson.

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The Eagles offensive staff, including their head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterback coach, all former quarterbacks, met Wentz halfway. They certainly had some of their more traditional NFL concepts, but they incorporated things that Wentz did at North Dakota State to ease the transition. This is a big reason Jackson preferred Jared Goff out of Cal.

Speaking of Goff, a big reason the second year quarterback has had such a terrific second year is new head coach Sean McVay has done a lot to help Goff. Notably, Most notably. McVay is calling his audibles for him, but again, where Jeff Fisher just dumped him into the NFL and he struggled, McVay went back and helped him get more comfortable.

Andy Reid, who has had a ton of success in the NFL with two different franchises and went to a Super Bowl, changed his offense this season to fit around Alex Smith better. They incorporated a ton of run, pass options and different ways to create offense and points. It produced a ton early in the year and has fallen off the second part of the year. Even Reid, who also handed off play calling duties to his offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, is still working, still adjusting to a veteran quarterback that’s been in the NFL for over a decade to try to improve their offense.

Bill Belichick, the coach with a fistfull of rings, changed his offense to fit around a rookie Jacoby Brissett when Jimmy Garoppolo was injured and Tom Brady suspended. The smartest coach in the NFL knew better than to try to ask Brissett to be Brady. He saw what he could do and couldn’t do planned around it, enabling the New England Patriots to win as many football games as Jackson has in almost two years.

The famed West Coast, or Ohio offense, was born out of necessity. Bill Walsh didn’t plan on it. He was forced to come up with when his starting quarterback, Greg Cook, went down to injury and he had to adapt around backup Virgil Carter who was smart, accurate and could move. They found a way to win with what they had and it changed the game. That’s what great coaches do.

Hue Jackson is admitting he can’t do this, won’t do it and has shown he wouldn’t know how if he tried. Jackson is saying he has to have a specific quarterback, great pocket passer. And if that doesn’t happen, he can’t function to the tune of 1-27. And when things go bad, he panics and will scratch and claw his way into blaming anyone else for his own inadequacies.

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No level of football is beyond a coach adjusting to the talent on the roster, but particularly the NFL where careers are so fleeting. If Jackson gets Josh Rosen out of UCLA (clearly who he’ll favor) and Rosen were to get injured or is ineffective as a rookie, Jackson will panic and try to do something stupid again. He did it for Carson Palmer in Oakland and crippled their franchise for a few years. He tried to do it for A.J. McCarron in Cleveland in a move that would’ve been a disaster.

Jackson, the man who thinks of himself as some sort of quarterback coaching deity, knows no other way, won’t adjust to a quarterback and has clearly shown why he’s ill-equipped to be the head coach of the Browns or any other team. In a game that is constantly evolving, even in the midst of a single season, Hue Jackson insists on being a dinosaur. They went extinct as did this style of coaching and it’s absurd that this could continue into 2018.

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Cleveland Browns: Hue Jackson lays out why he’s a terrible coach

By Peter Smith | Dec 9, 2017

Hue Jackson, the master of telling on himself, admitted today that he’s a horrible coach for the Cleveland Browns that only knows how to do things one way.