ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr gained a lot of fans across the NFL during his rookie season. Count former Oakland head coach and current Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson among them.
Jackson coached the Raiders to an 8-8 record in 2011 -- the last non-losing season the team has had. But he was let go shortly after the season ended when new general manager Reggie McKenzie came in and made sweeping changes to the coaching staff and roster. It’s a move that still angers many Oakland fans.
The 49-year-old Jackson still carries a soft spot in his heart for the team he says he grew up watching and thinks Carr has a bright future ahead of him. Jackson practically gushed like a teenager in love when discussing Carr on Bay Area radio station 95.7 FM Wednesday morning.
“I’m sure just knowing Jack (Del Rio) that he has a plan on what he wants to do for the young man,” Jackson said. “He is a tremendous talent. When you watched him coming out of Fresno State, he could throw the ball with anybody. He’s smart, he has moxie, he has the ability to make ad-lib plays, he can use his legs.
“The most important thing is just keep surrounding him with really good players and push him over that hump to the next level. He’s the guy that’s going to take them where they want to go. That’s what they drafted him for. When you watch some of the things he did this year, I think the sky’s the limit for this young man.”
Jackson knows a thing or two about quarterbacks, having been a quarterbacks coach in college and for two seasons with the Baltimore Ravens. He’s also a veteran offensive coordinator who has held that title with Washington, Atlanta, Oakland and now in Cincinnati.
One name he’ll forever be linked to is current Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer. The Raiders traded first- and second-round picks to pry Palmer away from Cincinnati, then two years later shipped him to the Cardinals for a pair of low-round picks.
The initial trade to obtain Palmer was a costly one and left many questioning Jackson’s judgment. At the time, Jackson had taken over as the face and voice of the franchise following the death of owner Al Davis, and many fans and critics blamed him for mortgaging the team’s future.
But Jackson denies he was the one who pulled the trigger on the move -- a statement that has been backed up by current owner Mark Davis -- and says he still believes it was the right thing to do at the time.
“Everybody has a different opinion of how it happened and why it happened,” Jackson told 95.7. “The crux of it all was Jason Campbell got hurt. When we tried to go out and look for other quarterbacks, there wasn’t many available. The guys that were available, I think people will be shocked to know that there were some teams that wanted more than what we gave up for Carson, for some other guys who I didn’t know. So when it came to Carson, he was someone I knew, someone I had coached and recruited. But I didn’t want to be the herd of the process, so Mark really took this over. I think everybody thought I was making the decisions at the time. I was the guy that was speaking, I wasn’t making the football decisions. At the time it’s what our team needed. It gave us hope to have a chance to make the playoffs.”
Jackson, who said working for the Raiders was one of the greatest times of his life, also weighed in on running back Darren McFadden. Scheduled to be a free agent this offseason, McFadden had his best season in 2010 when Jackson was the team’s offensive coordinator, rushing for a career-high 1,157 yards and seven touchdowns.
“The most important thing is the young man knew I believed in him, that I truly thought that he had unquestioned ability,” Jackson said. “What I tried to do is build a system that showcased his talent and ability. Obviously he went and had a tremendous couple years for me.”