NFL Notes: 2021 Season, Hue Jackson, Justin Fields

Justin Fields

• According to Albert Breer of SI, there will be a wide variety of important names at the pro day for Ohio State QB Justin Fields as he does a workout designed by former NFL QB John Beck, who also designed the BYU QB Zach Wilson’s session last week.
• Some of the personnel who will attend Fields’ pro day include Jets GM Joe Douglas, assistant GM Rex Hogan, OC Mike LaFleur, 49ers assistant GM Adam Peters, college scouting director Ethan Waugh, QB coach Rich Scangarello, Falcons GM Terry Fontenot, HC Arthur Smith, OC Dave Ragone, Eagles QB coach Brian Johnson, Panthers GM Scott Fitterer, HC Matt Rhule, and director of player personnel Pat Stewart, Broncos GM George Paton, and Patriots executive Eliot Wolf.
• 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan was not in attendance but Fields is expected to hold a second pro day where he will be able to attend, which he is fine with doing: “He’s a great offensive-minded coach and arguably one of the best coaches in the league. It’s just an honor and a blessing to be in that position to be looked at by them. So, I’m just grateful.” (Nick Wagoner)

Hue Jackson

Former Browns’ HC Hue Jackson is going public with his feelings during his time with the franchise, saying he was deliberately misled by owner Jimmy Haslam.

“There’s no doubt I was lied to by ownership and leadership of the team,’’ Jackson said, via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. “They were going to be football plus analytics, but it was football versus analytics. They were going to take two years and they were going to find a way to use us as an experiment to make sure that they got the data that they needed for it to get better — at the expense of whoever — and that’s not right. That’s not the way it should be.”

Jackson plans to publish a book about his experience with the team and believes he has been inaccurately portrayed in the media.

“I think I became the fall guy because that was the narrative,” said Jackson. “The truth needs to come out for other minority coaches. They need to know the pitfalls out there. My story has affected some of their futures…I want to make sure everybody knows and understands exactly what went on in Cleveland. The truth needs to come out. I am tired of being the brunt of jokes and memes and things that people say when they don’t know.”

According to Jackson, the team did not want to make his contract extension public at a time when his coaching record was 1-23.

“I got a contract extension at 1-23, midway through the season,’’ Jackson said. “I wanted to go public with it, but the Browns didn’t. I think we can all understand and think why it was not made public. Because it would’ve really set the tempo for what exactly was going on there.”

Jackson no longer wants to be blamed for failures that he says fall on the shoulders of the team’s ownership.

“People need to go back and look at those drafts and see where those players are today,” Jackson said. “That should tell you all you need to know. They’re not on this team. They haven’t been. Some of them aren’t even in the league, but we were expected to win. You can’t win that way. I’ll take responsibility for my role in it, but why isn’t everybody else taking their responsibility for it? There’s people that are leading the organization today in Cleveland that was just as big a part of that as I was. And those guys are getting paid for doing that. So obviously they were paid for losing. Is that what we’re saying? I’m vilified about losing. This is a joke to me.”