At least somebody knows that he's going to coach for the Oakland Raiders next season.
Baltimore Ravens' quarterbacks coach Hue Jackson has agreed to be the Raiders' new offensive coordinator, ESPN reported Tuesday morning.
Jackson, a respected NFL assistant credited with the development of Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco and Bengals receivers Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh, will take over play-calling duties from head coach Tom Cable. The Raiders ranked 31st out of 32 teams in total offense last season with Cable calling the plays.
Hue Jackson ditched his interview with the Chicago Bears to accept this Oakland offensive coordinator position. So that should get him off on the right foot with Raider Nation.
On one hand, you could say Jackson's hire bodes pretty well for Tom Cable's chances of keeping his job. Cable and Jackson have worked together at Cal and Cal State Fullerton in previous assistant gigs, and it appears the Raiders are consciously hiring assistants with whom Cable would be comfortable working.
On the other hand, it also appears the Raiders are consciously hiring assistants to whom they would be comfortable handing Tom Cable's job after any given 24-point loss to the Broncos. Ray Ratto writes on his SFGate blog that "Jackson has an excellent, as in way better than 50-50, chance to be the next head coach of the team. He just won't be the head coach right away."
If that's true, there is a strong silver ling for Tom Cable. If the next head coach of the Oakland Raiders is already in the house, then maybe now Al Davis can stop conducting secret job interviews.
Sports
Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who first heard of Hue Jackson back in 2006 when Chad Johnson incoherently screamed his name at the end of an interview where he's hilariously out of sorts with a concussion.
