Hue Jackson Out In Oakland

Added on Jan 10, 2012 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

It’s already been a year of considerable transition in the Oakland Raiders’ franchise with the death of their iconic owner Al Davis. Now things are going to get even more tumultuous with a complete overhaul of the front office and the ouster of head coach Hue Jackson after only one season at the helm.

First of all, there’s the new General Manager–Reggie McKenzie will be introduced as the new GM on Tuesday and he’ll call most of the shots that Al Davis did before his death. McKenzie reportedly contemplated keeping Jackson on, but eventually decided to bring in his own coach.

McKenzie will take over his new job immediately, which means that he’ll be leaving his former employers–the Green Bay Packers–as they begin defense of their Super Bowl championship. McKenzie has his work cut out for him, starting with the challenge of filling the role of General Manager in a franchise not used to having one–the Raiders haven’t had a real GM since Davis’ longtime assistant Bruce Allen left for Tampa Bay after the 2003 season. Even though Allen was a de facto GM for Oakland McKenzie will be the first person to officially hold that title in franchise history.

Jackson was popular with players, but was frequently questioned for his game management skills. The Raiders started the season 7-4 but finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs by losing 4 of their final five games. Jackson definitely had his share of challenges, not the least of which was the loss of starting quarterback Jason Campbell. Campbell had played relatively well during Oakland’s strong start to the season but broke his collarbone against the Cleveland Browns in October. They briefly tried unproven Terrelle Pryor before acquiring veteran Carson Palmer from the Cincinnati Bengals. Even that move was very problematic–Palmer had been a holdout this season and arrived to camp out of shape and out of sync. Even when he finally got into game shape his long standing problem with inaccuracy continued to plague him. Clearly one of McKenzie’s first duties will be to improve the Raiders’ depth at the quarterback position to prevent a repeat of the 2011 fiasco.