3 Reasons Why Oakland Raiders Were Wise to Fire Hue Jackson

According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the Oakland Raiders fired head coach Hue Jackson Tuesday.

The move marks the first change after the hiring of new GM Reggie McKenzie, who came over from the Green Bay Packers organization last week.

While there will certainly be those who cry foul for Jackson, McKenzie made the right decision.

Here are three reasons the firing of Jackson was the right call.  

New GM = New Head Coach

Rarely in the NFL does a new general manager and old head coach work out over the long term.

Teams attempt to pull it off, but the head coach is out the door relatively quickly in a large majority of cases. 

That's the scenario here. It was clear after the Raiders hired McKenzie that he had a big decision on Jackson.

The Raiders coach made it very apparent after the season that he wanted a bigger say in the organization, but that was never going to happen once McKenzie was hired. 

Expect McKenzie to clean house in the Raiders' front office. 

Too Many Penalties

In Jackson's first year, the Raiders set the NFL record for penalties and penalty yards in one season.

The final totals: 163 penalties (more than 10 a game) for 1,358 yards.  

Those numbers are completely unacceptable when trying to turn around an organization that hasn't been to the playoffs since 2002.

For the Raiders to truly turn their franchise around, the culture in Oakland had to change.

In the end, the head coach is responsible for that many penalties. 

Botched Trade for Palmer

With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, Jackson and the Raiders made a panicked move to get Carson Palmer before the trade deadline.

Jackson gave the OK on a move that surrendered several high picks for a quarterback that was nothing more than average over the second half of season.

Palmer, who threw 16 interceptions and had an 80.1 passer rating, was a contributing factor in the Raiders' failure to make the playoffs in 2011.

Now, McKenzie has limited draft capital to work with in the next two drafts.

Franchise-altering moves like the ones Jackson pulled the trigger on have consequences.