New Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen knows a thing or two about talented quarterbacks. He spent the past 14 years with the Indianapolis Colts working with Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck. That's a lot to live up to for Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill.
Tannehill, now entering his fifth season, is still a question mark. Despite posting back-to-back 4,000-plus yard seasons, Tannehill has struggled with inconsistency, and the Dolphins have never made the post-season or even finished above .500 in his four years. Miami is 29-35 with the former Texas A&M star under center.
But Christensen remains impressed with the 27-year-old passer in the little time he's been around him.
"I love the way he works," the OC said. "I love the way he's attacking it. (We are) still way in the getting-to-know-each-other process (with) him trying to learn a system. To judge him yet would be unfair, and that's what I told him."
Christensen will work closely with head coach Adam Gase to help Tannehill improve on third down and in fourth quarters. One change that may help is allotting more control of the offense to Tannehill this year. Under former offensive coordinator Bill Lazor, Tannehill was restricted in the freedom he had to change the plays and call audibles.
As Christensen sees it, this spring's organized team activities and minicamps will serve as a "teaching period" for Tannehill, as opposed to an evaluation of the passer. The new coaching staff will not take into consideration previous struggles and instead will wait to work with Tannehill before forming an opinion on his strengths and weaknesses. From there, it will install an offense that will put its QB in a position to succeed.
"The evaluation will come training camp-wise," Christensen said. "Training camp, now, you got to be able to apply this stuff. That'll be the first time I talk to you where I'll say [where Tannehill is]...But I think he works. He learns. It's new. He has embraced it. Like everybody else, I think it has been a fun teach."
Tannehill completed 61.9 percent of his passes last season while throwing for a career-high 4,2018 yards with 24 touchdowns against 12 interceptions.
Follow Brandon Katz at @Great_Katzby
