CLEVELAND -- Former Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson is looking to get back into coaching as soon as possible, maybe even this year.
On a media tour since the end of last week, Jackson appeared on The Adam Schefter Podcast Monday and talked about the possibility of joining another coaching staff midseason if the opportunity were to present itself.
“Oh, absolutely,” Jackson told Schefter.
“Absolutely. If there’s somebody who I know and trust and respect, felt like they needed me to help or to do something for them along the lines of assisting in any way that I can to help them be as good as they can be on gameday. I would do that in a heartbeat.
“I’m not going to run from the opportunity to sit in the head chair neither. I know I can do it. There’s no question in my mind that I can. I know my record doesn’t say that, and rightfully so, but I know I can go coordinate offenses in the National Football League tomorrow if given an opportunity.”
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 record.
Jackson and the Browns were 2-5-1 through the first half of the 2018 regular season, and three of their five losses came in the waning seconds of regulation or overtime.
“At the end of the day, we just didn’t win enough games, so you have to move forward,” Jackson said.
“The biggest thing is, I didn’t win enough games during my time in Cleveland. Regardless of what the circumstances were, I have to take responsibility and ownership of that first. That was my responsibility to get the organization to winning, and I wasn’t able to pull that off.”
Jackson was a part of several dubious records during his time with the Browns, as the team 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-plus span.
Additionally, in 2017, the Browns set the record for the worst 28-game stretch in NFL history, as they “bested” the previous mark of 2-26 set by the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the 1976-1977 seasons with a 1-27 showing that got four losses worse after Week 13.
“I will always root for them because I want to see the organization turn,” Jackson said. “I really do. I went there, as many coaches have gone there before me, to do everything they can to try to turn the organization around.
“I wasn’t able to get it done. I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of coaches lined up after me that are going to try to do the same thing, and I wish them well. I hope that it does turn because the fans deserve it, the players deserve it and the organization deserves it.”
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