Clyde Christensen – November 9, 2016
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Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen
(Head Coach Adam Gase said he wants you all to hold him accountable, hold him to those runs.) – “He has, and he really has done a good job. It really isn’t a small thing when you’ve thrown the ball successfully and as much as he has. He has stayed with the run. I think his discipline in the play calling, he has done such a good job with it that it really did help us come out of that thing and stabilize this whole thing when we were really struggling early. I think that has been no small factor. I tease him about getting a little rash when he has to call too many of them in a row, but he has been really disciplined.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase talked about getting WR Jarvis Landry the ball. He said he felt bad about not getting it to him. How tough is that when things are working on offense and you stick with what works?) – “It’s really hard. It’s unique getting it to wide outs, because it sounds easy. (With) fantasy football, you throw it to your best players, but a lot of times it’s hard. It’s hard. It depends (on) what they’re playing. It depends how the game is going. Just because you dial up something with his number on it, doesn’t mean it goes to him. But he was really hot. He was playing well, and he was beating the guy who was over top of him. It really wasn’t Coach Gase’s fault as much as mine, because I usually give him those suggestions. So, it was really my responsibility to get it to him. We knew he was winning. We knew he had a hot hand. We just had trouble getting the ball to him, and that falls back on me. Coach Gase probably took my bullet on that one. That’s really my fault. It’s not as easy as you think, but you have to. He’s a guy … Even with the three catches, he still made us go. He makes a great move on the guy and goes up the sideline, he runs over a guy, pops his helmet off. Jarvis is kind of our tempo setter. He gets the unit going. We have to keep the ball in his hands. That’s him – he plays with it on his sleeve. The more the ball is in his hands, the more this offense is going to be pretty darned good.”
(At the risk of causing you a rash, what do you think of the term ‘game manager’ for a quarterback, and is that what QB Ryan Tannehill is now?) – “You want every quarterback to be a game manager. We talked about that last week (about), ‘When do you take a risk? When do you not take a risk?’ – all those things. There’s nobody who’s not a game manager. The Brett Favre’s and freewheeling guys still have to be a game manager (and know) when to throw it away, when to take a chance, when to throw it up for grabs. I think he is managing the game well. I think to go three weeks without a turnover, to protect the football, to understand how we win a football game, understand who we’re playing, understand what our unit is – those are all really hard teaches, because they’re kind of unique. Every week is a little bit different. Some weeks you need him to take some chances and make some big plays. Some weeks you need him to be patient and take checkdowns. I think he has managed the game extremely well. I think it’s a really, really good term. Publicly, it’s kind of derogatory that you’re not a playmaker if you’re a game manager but even the great playmakers that I’ve been around are game managers. But it’s a hard teach. It’s a hard, disciplined teach. It’s a hard, disciplined learn. It’s tough.”
(So QB Ryan Tannehill shouldn’t be offended by that?) – “No quarterback should be offended. It should be a compliment, but it kind of has this derogatory term of making you a non-playmaker (and) you just manage the game. Absolutely not. In fact, you guys make our job a little bit harder, because they do look it as a … It’s like a possession receiver. What’s a possession receiver? You catch the ball underneath. It has this derogatory connotation, and yet, it’s absolutely a critical, critical … You want receivers to possess the ball, that keep possessions. I think game manager for a quarterback falls in that one that has this negative connotation, but not inside the coaching rooms it doesn’t. Not at all.”
(How would you describe RB Jay Ajayi’s running style, and is there anybody he reminds you of that you’ve coached?)– “Maybe a little bit of Edgerrin James. Edgerrin was a good mix of right when you thought that you had a finesse guy, he ran you over and right when you thought he was going to run you over, he ran around you. I think maybe a little bit of … I actually didn’t have Edgerrin before the knee surgery, but he had that ability to do both. I think this guy … That’s like a pitcher. If you’ve got two good pitches and one’s a hardball and one’s a finesse pitch, that’s a hard combination. I think you see it … You saw it at the end of the game. All of a sudden you come running through there and on a safety. That’s a bad feeling, because one time he goes around you and one time he goes right over top of you. I do think that he has a nice, little combination going. He’s a violent guy, he’s a big guy, but he does have an ability to outrun you or run around you.”
(Can you talk about the production from the tight ends – TE Dominique Jones and TE MarQueis Gray? It seems line QB Ryan Tannehill is getting more confidence in both of them.) – “I think one of the huge factors … That’s what we said in our team meeting today is that it’s going to take all 53 (players) and some. There’s no such thing as rookies anymore. There’s no such thing as practice squad. They’re just Dolphins and everyone is going to have to step up and make a play. (We) had (Thomas) Duarte up from the practice squad this week. He played two snaps. You had your three, four and five tight end playing against probably the best (defensive) front we’ve seen this year. (The Jets had a) really good defensive front with a bunch of girth and big guys. For those guys – I said it last week – MarQueis did a great job. Now ‘D.J.’ (Dominique Jones) comes in, who got released after camp, and he comes back and catches a huge third-down conversion to run some time off the clock and keep that drive going. At the end, he catches the touchdown pass, and that’s your fourth tight end who jumps in there and does it. And Duarte was ready to go and played two snaps and gave us a little cheerleading effort there and some enthusiasm. It’s huge. It has to happen. The second half of the year, it’ll happen more and more and more, because guys are worn down, guys miss some time and someone has to step up. No one really gives a darn; they just want you to win. So, that’s really, really important. So, I do think (Ryan Tannehill) is getting confidence in those guys, especially on movements. We had the huge movement again where he’s throwing it off the run, and those guys are coming across, and those are big plays. And (the) touchdown. To have the confidence in a guy you haven’t done a ton of work for and with. To hit him in the corner of the end zone like that, that was a big, big throw and catch.”
(So, you’ve seen the playmaking ability of WR Jakeem Grant and RB Kenyan Drake on special teams. Are they progressing to the point where you can use them a little bit more?) – “We really think so. They really have some juice to them. We tried to get a little Jakeem package going. I told you we were going to try and do that, and he dropped the one. It was kind of a little bit of a setback, but we’ve got to keep doing it. They make plays. Damien (Williams), it’s the same thing. As soon as they go in there, they make plays. The more we can get them in there, the more we can find things to do with them. It’s, again, not as easy as the outsiders look at it. There are only so many balls. (Leonte) Carroo has got to step up. He got 35, 40 snaps this week that he wasn’t expecting to play. All of a sudden, Kenny (Stills) goes down, and he plays 35 or 40 snaps. Those are really important. (There are) no little things to us being successful and try to keep some momentum going as we head on the road.”
(Is there anything about RB Damien Williams that has surprised you?) – “When I took this job – and you’re watching all the film and you’re trying to assess – he became an instant favorite of mine. They talked about him as a special teams guy, but one thing that jumped off the tape is every time he touched it, something good happened. I always tease with Coach Gase (that) it probably – it’s not a joke but – that he per snap probably has more big plays than anyone on the offense. The number of snaps he has for big plays, his ratio is really, really, really high. And he’s a tough guy. He gives you some tempo. He was one of the guys who, when we got here, I just thought was really an important guy to keep around here and get involved. I have not been surprised by it at all. He was one of my instant favorites, if you will, because of what you saw on film. Every film you watched, he’s whacking (a) linebacker coming up the middle or he’s finessing somebody, he’s breaking a tackle. (The) special teams guys love him. All the things you’re looking for in a backup running back in your two slot or your three slot. He has been really, really terrific.”
