NFL notes: Browns, Giants hire new head coaches

NFL: Hue Jackson has experience as a head coach, knows the AFC North and has fixed quarterbacks – just what the Cleveland Browns were looking for.

The former Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator, who waited four years for his second crack at leading an NFL team, has been was hired as Cleveland’s next coach – the struggling franchise’s eighth since 1999 and sixth since 2008.

The 50-year-old Jackson finalized his deal on Wednesday, swiftly ending the Browns’ search, which began on Jan. 3 when owner Jimmy Haslam fired Mike Pettine after two losing seasons.

Jackson had also interviewed with the San Francisco 49ers and was scheduled to meet later this week with the New York Giants, but Haslam was not going to be outbid for a coach he coveted.

The Browns were drawn to Jackson because of his one season as Oakland’s head coach, his deep knowledge inside their division and his strong record working with quarterbacks like Carson Palmer and Andy Dalton.

Cleveland owns the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s draft and will likely use it on a quarterback – possibly California’s Jared Goff or Memphis’ Paxton Lynch.

Jackson’s challenge in Cleveland will be turning around a team that can’t seem to get out of its own way. Pettine had the Browns off to a 7-4 start in 2014, but he lost 18 of his last 21 games. The Browns were at times competitive, but remain at the bottom of one of the league’s toughest divisions.

Giants to hire offensive coordinator McAdoo

The New York Giants are hiring offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo as their next head coach, a person familiar with the decision said.

McAdoo, 38, is being given the job a little more than a week after Tom Coughlin stepped down after 12 seasons, the person spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity because the team has not officially announced the hiring.

The Giants have liked what McAdoo has done with the offense the past two seasons, helping two-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback Eli Manning get back on track.

Ex-NFL RB Lawrence Phillips found dead in prison

Lawrence Phillips, a star RB at Nebraska and first-round NFL draft pick, whose pro career quickly unraveled amid disciplinary problems, was found dead in his Sacramento, California prison cell on Wednesday. Officials said they suspect suicide.

Guards at Kern Valley State Prison found Phillips, 40, unresponsive, and he was taken to an outside hospital. He was pronounced dead about 1:30 a.m., the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.

Phillips, 40, went to prison in 2008 on a sentence of more than 31 years after he was convicted of twice choking his girlfriend in 2005 in San Diego and of driving his car into three teens later that year after a pickup football game in Los Angeles.

He had been housed alone in a segregation cell since April 2015 after he was suspected of killing his cellmate. A Kern County judge ruled on Tuesday there was enough evidence to try Phillips in the death of Damion Soward, 37, the cousin of former USC and NFL wide receiver R. Jay Soward.

A day before his death, Judge Michael Dellostritto ordered Phillips to face trial on a charge of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of lying in wait, Kern County court records show. The special circumstance could have led to the death penalty had he been convicted, but prosecutors said no decision on that had been made.

Jesse Whitten, Phillips’ attorney, said his client was upbeat and confident at the hearing and had expected the outcome. “It was not like he was surprised or upset with the way the hearing went,” Whitten said.