Hue Jackson

Hue Jackson was the Raiders head coach for one season.

(AP Photo, Houston Chronicle, Brett Coomer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Hue Jackson's high point as a head coach came on November 27, 2011. The Raiders beat the Chicago Bears, 25-20, to move to 7-4. The Bears were 7-3 coming into the game and it started a spiral in which Chicago lost five of their final six games to finish 8-8.

Unfortunately for Jackson, the Raiders' own spiral to 8-8 started the following week. They ended up as one of three teams tied atop the AFC West and missed the playoffs. Jackson was fired following the season.

So what happened?

"He wants to bring in his own guys. No job is safe right now," Jackson told CSNBayArea.com following the firing.

Let's back up a little. "He" is Reggie McKenzie, the current general manager of the Raiders. He was named GM shortly after the 2011 season ended -- the day he fired Jackson, actually. McKenzie was hired away from the Green Bay Packers, where he was the director of football operations. Bringing in his own guys, of course, included his own coach, as he took over many of the duties that once belonged to owner Al Davis, who passed away on Oct. 8, 2011.

"There comes a time when change is necessary," McKenzie said at the time. "For the Raiders the time is now. The Raiders organization, with respect and deference for all its tradition and history, is about to embark on a new era."

Jackson told Michael Silver, then of Yahoo! Sports, that he believed the call was the owner's.

"But it's Mark Davis' football team, and Mark's going to do what he thinks is best," Jackson told Silver. "In the end I think he said, 'I want to put my own stamp on it,' and he wanted his own coach."

Drew Magary wrote for NBC Bay Area that the Raiders were right to fire Jackson. He believed that his ties to Al Davis and the team's desire to move on were important to consider, as well as a potential power struggle following the longtime owner's death.

It also didn't help, according to former Raiders quarterback and NFL analyst on Sirus XM NFL Radio Rich Gannon, that Jackson went after his players' effort following a loss at the end of the season that kept his team out of the playoffs.

"All the Raiders had to do was to win on January 1, and they would have been in the postseason," Gannon said in 2011. "So a disappointing finish. And to make matters worse, Hue Jackson went ballistic at his postgame press conference. Those comments were heard around the league. I think they surprised some people. And not only that, but his comments about moving forward how he would have more control, and he'd want more control and want to do more things in terms of the personnel. I think when you listen to those comments, and you are Reggie McKenzie, and you're coming in you say to yourself, 'Wait a second, this is not how we're going to do business.' And I'm not surprised with the change."

Part of the decision to part ways, too, likely had to do with the acquisition of Carson Palmer from the Cincinnati Bengals. After Jason Campbell went down with an injury, Jackson shipped a 2012 first-round pick and a conditional second-rounder in 2013 to Cincinnati for the veteran quarterback. He played in the Raiders' final 10 games of the 2011 season, starting nine, throwing 13 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.

"Guys loved playing for Hue," Palmer told the San Jose Mercury News in early 2014 when asked about his time in Oakland. "Hue was a great head coach. Unfortunately, they decided that it was time for him to go, and a number of our guys that had been there awhile. Any of our guys that were making above league minimum, it was time to cut them."

In case you think Raiders fans are bitter about Jackson's tenure and the acquisition of Palmer, think again. During the 2014 season, some fans took out a newspaper ad asking the Raiders to hire -- that's right -- Hue Jackson.