Hue Jackson shades Gregg Williams over public criticism of rookie

Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson could have done without his defensive coordinator belittling one of the team’s highly-touted youngsters in public.

A day after Browns defensive coordinator Gregg Williams blamed cornerback Denzel Ward’s back injury on his “stupid” tacking technique during his media session, Jackson suggested that such criticisms were valid, but should be handled behind closed doors.

“Gregg does not get to do just what he wants to do,” Jackson said, via Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com. “We’ll work through all of that. Our players, there’s a certain way that we do want them to tackle because of size, structure and all of that. We don’t want a guy to get hurt or anything like that. I’m sure that Gregg does advise. We don’t need to do all of that stuff in the media.”

Williams’s remarks were surprisingly candid, but he seemed to hint that he’d been repeatedly urging Ward to fix his form in private unsuccessfully. Perhaps he felt that calling him out publicly might finally get the message across, but Jackson doesn’t approve.