Clyde Christensen – August 4, 2016
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Thursday, August 4, 2016
Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen
(On if QB Brandon Doughty has surprised him so far) – “You know what, he has and he’s been what we saw on the film. He can do four things wrong and get a completion out of it. He has a nice knack for… that’s kind of what he’s been. He’s always moved the ball. We’ve thrown a lot at him and he’s made some mistakes but he ends up finding a completion. We’re really pleased with him. Hopefully we skip the mistakes and get the completions kind of the ‘Fins way,’ if you will. He just has a knack. You watch the thing and you go ‘Gosh, he missed this and he missed this and he went 4-for-5 in this period.’ He’s been a pleasant surprise. He works his tail off. He’s smart. He has a lot of football savvy and so he’s had a good camp.”
(On the importance of missing WR DeVante Parker in the red zone offense in today’s practice) – “Yes, you miss DeVante (Parker). DeVante’s got to be our bell cow in the red zone. But it (red zone work) is good work. We come off the off day and it’s a way to be sharper (and) quicker – not as much elongating the stride (when players run). So I think it’s really a smart way to do it. We do it for a couple things: One – for the red zone, just because of the emphasis on the red zone; Two – just to kind of ease back into it after you’ve had a night practice and a day off. But it’s good because if DeVante is down for a couple weeks, somebody has to step up in the red zone. We’ve got to find the plays that work and we’ve got to find ways to get it to the other guys and someone else has to take up the slack for him.”
(On if it is frustrating that WR DeVante Parker has a setback) – “Sure. Yes. I don’t think of it that way, you just keep moving and you go; but it’s never good to miss practice. You’d love for those 11 starters to stay (and) work together, work together, work together. But the silver lining is that odds are you’re going to need different combinations during the season and you may as well practice them (now). I think we’re trying to create a mentality where you’re not worried about who’s not playing. We’re worried about who is practicing and who is playing. Whoever that is, in Week 8, Week 16 or the third week of the playoffs, they go in and the next man up has to play.”
(On if G/T Laremy Tunsil will start at left guard in Week 1) – “We don’t know yet. Like I said, it’s still the teach mode. It’s still the teach mode. As much as I kind of want to jump ahead and get into a starting lineup, we haven’t even gotten to the first preseason game or game week (yet). Through the first preseason game, it’s just keep teaching. He’s really a talented guy. He’s going to be a really fine left tackle at whatever point, but there is a learning curve for him at guard. Things actually happen quicker at guard. You have all of the twists. You’ve got a lot more movement. You’re setting outside about 85 percent of the time. It probably is going to be good for him long-term wise to have played in there and understand how quickly things happen in this league. So I think there’s a silver lining for Tunsil that you’re playing a different position where things are happening really, really quickly, which will pay off for him at left tackle also. But we’re going to continue to training him at both positions and knowing full well that it’s not a natural position for him at guard and he’s just learning.”
(On if it is alarming that G/T Laremy Tunsil isn’t taking all of the first team reps since some considered him the best prospect in the draft) – “No, not alarming at all. It’s actually great. It’s actually great. We’re going to have more flexibility than ever, because you’ve got some talent in there. We’ll have to make some decisions, but those decisions will come more after Week 1 of the preseason and then we’ll still have two weeks of camp and a fourth preseason game and a game week to have the combination right that we want to go into the season with. But I don’t see that happening until after Week 1 of the preseason. I see us just continuing to cross-train a lot of different people and then make our decision from there.”
(On how sharp the wide receivers group has been) – “I think they’ve been better these last couple of days. We’ve been a little bit sharper. I’m going to blame (Head Coach Adam) Gase for some of it with the install – it’s been pretty darn ambitious – so I’ll blame him a little bit. But the receivers’ got to take their share (of blame) also. We threw a lot at them and the more you throw at them mentally, the slower you move, the less you react, the more balls you drop. As soon as it starts becoming natural, you run faster, you catch the ball better and that has shown. I’d be really nervous if we hadn’t improved in the second week of the training camp, in the second phase of the training camp. If we hadn’t improved, I’d really be nervous. But I do think it’s starting to sink in. We’re starting to do it faster. We’re starting to look like we kind of know what we’re doing. Now you can apply some of the fine-tuning to it, of beating man coverage, of making a big catch, or some of the things that we know we have to do.”
(On how exciting the offense has been for the players and the coaches who teach it) – “I think it’s been hard on the guys who are here, because we’re asking them to learn a lot of different positions and a high volume of install. So it’s a little bit hard. These guys want to do their deal. They want to show what they can do and it’s a little bit hard because we’ve got them thinking. It’s a chore. It’s some work to get lined up right now. As soon as it’s a chore to get lined up, then it’s a little bit harder to play fast. I think probably it’s been a little bit hard on them; but I do think again the deposits long-term are going to really help. There’s going to come a point where you’re playing somewhere out of position. Someone’s going to have play guard who’s been trained at tackle. Someone’s going to have to play tackle who’s been trained at guard. I think the cross-training will pay dividends. All these are good deposits that maybe (slow) us (down) a little bit early, but long-term wise should be a benefit.”
(On the communication at the line of scrimmage with QB Ryan Tannehill) – “I think it’s been okay. It’s got to get better. Again, some of it’s built into the thing. We knew we were throwing a ton at him. He’s having to tell a lot of people what to do and then play his position. That’s what you forget. It’s not just the quarterback, it’s not just getting everyone lined up, but then you’ve got to play quarterback. You’ve got to be an NFL quarterback and that’s really, really hard to do. And again, it still falls into, the more you think, the less well you’re going to have to play. It’s got to become natural and that’s going to take a while with a new system, new coaches and new people around you. And then all of a sudden you throw different combinations at him, wide receiver-wise, and I think it’s hard. But he is an unbelievably hard worker. We’ve been unbelievably impressed how much he’s picked up. It would have drowned an average man. He’s stayed up with it. He probably has gone down a couple of times there but he keeps coming up and studies it and is on it, so it’ll come. Again, it’s not going to be one of those things where we’re in postseason form in Week 2 of the preseason. That’s not going to happen. That’s not the object and that’s not going to be frustrating or disappointing. We know. We know. That’s the plan.”
(On having a running back by committee approach and if he could see a scenario where three different backs get 75-100 carries this year) – “I hope not. We don’t want that. We really need someone to emerge as the guy. I’ve talked to you about the no-huddle thing. We don’t want to substitute. When you huddle, you substitute those guys and you can keep them fresh. We really need one guy to be a three-down back, stay in there for that drive. Now, we can sub you on that next drive, etc. But we need some guys to play big chunks. It’s different from the rest of the league. I don’t see us being a specialist running back (team), that, ‘Hey, this guy’s our third-down guy, this guy’s our first-down guy. This guy’s our blitz guy. This is our empty guy. Our guy has to be able to do all of those things because one of the things we’re counting on is we can get you in a personnel group and make you stay in it. That’s got to be one of our advantages. If we can get you in a personnel group and make you stay in it and we can stay in it — we’ve got to be able to stay in it. If we’ve got two guys who can’t do what we’re asking them to do, then we’ve got a problem. Then we have to substitute and go from there. But I don’t think we see it as by-committee as you’re defining it. There may be some different guys (that) play, but we really need to have a guy who goes in there and plays every down.”
(On how he sees the running back group shaking out) – “I don’t know. We talked yesterday in our personnel meeting. There are some talented guys, but there’s not enough facts to base everything on. There’s not enough facts on any of our running backs to have exclamation points and facts. They all have this development process and getting to know Arian (Foster), easing him into this thing and being smart with his reps. Jay (Ajayi), the same thing – (he’s) a guy who (does) not have 100 carries yet (in his) career. What are these guys? I don’t know. We have to get the pads on, get in these preseason games. But we need that to unfold. We need to turn some question marks into exclamation points, which we’ll do.”
(On how a quarterback builds trust) – “I think just doing it over and over, and just getting a swagger to him, getting a confidence. We’ll be good when he knows exactly what (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase wants. When he knows that, when we’re humming, he will know what Gase is going to call. He will know that. He’ll know what Gase wants to get to on all of these combinations. He’ll know those things and now we’ve got something. That’ll take some time. Coach Gase will explain it, ‘No, this is what I was thinking with that. We want to do this or this, but I want this versus this coverage.’ The more that those guys get on the same page, the more that he doesn’t have to think, ‘I know why Coach Gase called this. He was calling that for this and we got it. Here it is. Bang!’ We’ve got to make them pay. ‘Hey, he called it for this, we didn’t get this, he’ll want me to check this ball down.’ The more we get to that point with the quarterbacks on the same page as Coach Gase, then we’ve got something. Now you’ve got some confidence and now they’re just rolling.”
(On if there is a different level of coaches have with QB Ryan Tannehill then quarterbacks they have previously coached like QB Peyton Manning) – “Yeah, sure. I think the 12th year with Peyton (Manning) there was a lot more trust than the first year with Peyton. You don’t want that much on your plate early. Sometimes you just want to play football. You see how much they can handle. Each year, and that’s what I always explain to Ryan, ‘You visit with Peyton, that’s 17 years in the same offense.’ We can’t just go and roll in doctorate level courses here. He didn’t start as a doctor of quarterbacking. He started as a rookie quarterback and he made his way up and ended up a decorated doctorate in quarterbacking. But there was a lot of years of elementary school, all the way through, before he got that doctorate-level title. That’s part of the discipline for (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase and for me too, to just understand. I always teach Coach Gase, ‘You got married with kids Peyton. You didn’t do any hard time when he was single. You didn’t do any of the hard time.’ Some of it is that, just realizing you can’t install like you could with Peyton in the 15th year. That’s not the way the whole thing worked. That’s a mistake if we do that. There’s still a progression to playing this position, there’s a progression in this offense. It’s the same thing with (New England Patriots QB Tom) Brady. It’s the same thing with any quarterback – the longer you have some continuity, then you’ve got something. Peyton in his 15th year, if I told you what we were in our first year, it was pretty darn elementary. And then all of a sudden he starts understanding, taking it over, (and) having some ownership of the thing. Coaches worked their way out of a job and he knew what we were trying to do. That’ll be the same thing here, hopefully over the next years. That’s not (to say) by the third preseason game, we’re going to be at the point where Peyton was in his 15th year.”
(On where QB Ryan Tannehill stacks up to other quarterbacks he has coached as far as football intelligence) – “I think he’s really, really sharp. He works unbelievably hard. He works as hard as anybody I’ve been around. I think I’ve been around elite workers at the quarterback position. Those guys are elite. Peyton Manning (and) Andrew Luck are elite workers, and this guy works his tail off. I’ve been unbelievably impressed. There are some things we install and I go, ‘This is going to take a while,’ and he comes in the next day and he knows what’s going on. He’s burning the midnight oil in here and you can’t ask for anything more than what he’s doing. We’ve just got to stay the course and keep learning.”
