Al Davis died.
If you’re looking for a reason why Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson is no longer the head coach of the Oakland Raiders, you can begin and end there. If you want to know why Jackson’s return to Oakland for Sunday’s opener (4:25 p.m.-Cincinnati’s Channel 12) is an emotional maelstrom and intense rallying point, you just have to talk to Al Saunders.
“Hue was the right man at the right time for that organization,” Saunders recalled this week. “Al Davis hired Hue. That organization was going in the right direction. If he had stayed there, they would have had a great deal of success at this point.