Hue Jackson named Browns head coach

The Cleveland Browns have officially named Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson as their next head coach, per a team release on Wednesday afternoon.

Jackson had a second interview with the Browns on Tuesday, but also drew interest from the San Francisco 49ers, Tennessee Titans and New York Giants. He was scheduled to fly to New York to meet with the Giants, but a deal with the Browns was reached before his departure.

Michael Silver of Sports Illustrated was told by Jackson that the Browns “made [him] feel comfortable” in a second interview and that’s why he choose Cleveland as his landing spot.

In announcing his hire, the Browns emphasized Jackson’s leadership, previous head-coaching experience and ability to connect with his players as reasons why the team is confident that he will be able to turn around the franchise.

“He embodies all the qualities that will provide strong leadership for our football team,” Browns owner Jimmy Haslem said. “He is highly experienced, deeply passionate about winning, and relentless in trying to find ways to put his players in the best position to succeed ... I think our players will love playing for him.”

Both parties singled out the shared vision between the new head coach and the front office. Jackson expanded on his feelings about working with the analytically inclined Browns front office, which includes executive VP of football operations Sashi Brown and Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta at his introductory press conference Wednesday.

“Please trust me: I’m going to have an opportunity to work with some the smartest men in football,” Jackson said. “We’re on point and we understand exactly what it’s going to take to put this roster together to give us the best opportunity to be successful. Analytics is a part of it –– not the whole part of it –– but it’s a piece of it. If we can find another way of doing things good to give us another opportunity to have success, we all would do that. I like being cutting edge. … Eventually, everyone will be doing what we’re doing. That’s the fun part about this.”

“Hue understands and embraces the collaborative work that needs to be done to positively impact our results on the field,” noted Browns executive VP of football operations Sashi Brown. “He will be a terrific partner in our efforts to build a winning football team.”

The Browns need plenty of work on the offensive side of the ball, finishing 25th in the league in yardage and 30th in points scored with just 17.4 points per game. But there’s a big question mark at the quarterback position after Cleveland started free agent pickup Josh McCown for much of this season.

When McCown wasn’t starting, it was Johnny Manziel picking up the slack and after repeated off-the-field incidents, it’s unclear if Manziel has any future with the Browns organization. But both Ian Rapoport and Mike Garaofolo reported that Jackson wants to “move on” from Manziel.

Jackson has been tasked with developing quarterbacks for many teams, and did a great job with Andy Dalton. That’s one of the biggest reasons why Jackson was one of the hot coaches on the market this offseason.

The Browns fired Mike Pettine this offseason after a 10-22 mark in two years. He dropped 18 of his final 21 games as head coach. Jackson will have more to worry about than the underperforming offense, however -- the Browns ranked 27th in the league in total defense.

Jackson served as Cincinnati’s offensive coordinator in 2015 and was previously the team’s running backs coach and assistant special teams coach. Prior to joining the Bengals, he spent one season as head coach of the Oakland Raiders and led the team to an 8-8 record.

The Raiders were a team in turmoil at the time and his struggles didn’t seem to follow him to Cincinnati, where Dalton developed a nice rapport with wide receiver A.J. Green under Jackson’s watchful eye. Under Jackson, Dalton posted a quarterback rating of 106.2 in 2015, much higher than the 83.5 he had in 2014.

Jackson has been coaching in the NFL since he joined Washington in 2001. That was after several years of coaching in college. He was the Bengals’ wide receivers coach from 2004 to 2006 and also spent time with the Baltimore Ravens and Atlanta Falcons.

This is the first offseason in which Jackson’s name rose to the top of lists for coaching candidates, likely due to his strong work with Dalton and the Bengals in 2015.