With Jay Gruden headed to Washington, the Bengals are in need of a new offensive coordinator. They apparently won’t be looking far.
Hue Jackson, whose current title in Cincinnati is special assistant to head coach Marvin Lewis and running backs coach, is expected to take Gruden’s place as the Bengals’ offensive coordinator, according to Albert Breer of NFL Network.
Jackson has plenty of experience as an offensive coordinator, having held that title in the NFL in Oakland, Atlanta and Washington (as well as in college at USC and Cal). He was also the Raiders’ head coach in 2011.
Promoting Jackson would be a sign that head coach Marvin Lewis wants to more or less stay the course with the Bengals’ offense, rather than make a major shakeup by bringing in an outsider. And as Lewis has said he still has faith in Andy Dalton as the starting quarterback, Jackson’s most important task will be getting more out of Dalton, who turned in an enormously disappointing game in the Bengals’ season-ending loss on Sunday.