Miami Dolphins hire Clyde Christensen as offensive coordinator

The No. 1 question surrounding Adam Gase’s young coaching staff has been who will provide the team much-needed experience and credibility?

The answer came Saturday night. His name is Clyde Christensen.

Gase has hired Christensen, 59, as the Dolphins’ offensive coordinator, the Miami Herald learned Saturday. The Dolphins, as of late Saturday, had not yet announced the move.

This isn’t a typical situation. He won’t be a typical offensive coordinator.

Gase will call the plays, but will rely on Christensen to help run the offense and craft the weekly game plan.

Christensen comes to Miami from Indianapolis, where he’s coached since 2002. His roles with the Colts have included offensive coordinator, wide receivers coach, and — most recently — quarterbacks coach.

He has now gone from tutoring Andrew Luck to helping the Dolphins maximize Ryan Tannehill.

In essence, the Dolphins swapped Christensen for Joe Philbin, the former Dolphins head coach who on Friday was hired to run the Colts’ offensive line.

Christensen, a collegiate quarterback who never played professionally, bounced around the college coaching circuit before landing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1996. He was part of the Indianapolis coaching staff that won the Super Bowl at Sun Life Stadium after the 2006 season.

The Dolphins hope he provides stability to a role that has had anything but in the past year. Since Mike Sherman was fired as offensive coordinator after the 2013 season, both Bill Lazor and Zac Taylor have held the job in Miami. Neither is still with the franchise.

There's a reason. The Dolphins ranked 26th in total defense and 27th in scoring last year. Plus Tannehill plateaued — if not regressed — in his fourth NFL season.

This story was originally published January 16, 2016 at 11:54 PM with the headline "Miami Dolphins hire Clyde Christensen as offensive coordinator."