Tag: Clyde Christensen

Former NFL coach compares Drake Maye to Andrew Luck

Christensen also said anyone who passes on Drake Maye will regret it.

Clyde Christensen was one of the most respected offensive coaches in the NFL. Christensen began his coaching career in 1979 at Ole Miss. After 17 years in the college game, Christensen moved to the NFL in 1996.

After six years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Christensen moved to the Indianapolis Colts, where he’d spend the next 14 seasons in different roles, such as wide receivers coach, assistant head coach, offensive coordinator, and quarterbacks coach.

During his time with the Colts, Christensen worked with a pair of well-known quarterbacks: Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck. Christensen was never Manning’s quarterback coach but was his offensive coordinator for three seasons. Manning has spoken often about his respect for Christensen.

While he wasn’t Manning’s quarterback coach, he was 2012 No. 1 overall pick Andrew Luck’s quarterback coach. Christensen was Luck’s quarterback coach for the first four years of his NFL career and was a critical part of Luck’s early development in the NFL.

Christensen spent the 2023 season as a volunteer offensive analyst at North Carolina, where he played and graduated. The 68-year-old coach retired after the 2022 season after spending his final four NFL seasons as Tampa Bay’s quarterback coach — two of which were with Tom Brady.

In returning to his alma mater as a volunteer, Christensen worked with one of the nation’s top quarterbacks, Drake Maye. Upon taking the job, Christensen compared Maye to Luck.

Christensen was even more impressed after spending a season with Maye and the Tar Heels. According to Pat McAfee, who played with the Colts for eight seasons — all but one were when Christensen was on staff — Christensen believes Maye is “the guy.”

In speaking to McAfee, Christensen repeated that Maye reminded him of Luck but also said that anyone who passes on Maye will regret it.

Here’s the entire segment from the “Pat McAfee Show,” where he discussed Christensen’s comments on Maye.

The Washington Commanders hold the No. 2 overall pick. Will Washington select Maye or LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels? The Commanders had a large presence at Maye and Daniels’ pro days last week, and Washington head coach Dan Quinn was reportedly extremely impressed with the former UNC star.

For fans who don’t remember how great Luck was, he was well on his way to a Hall of Fame career before abruptly retiring after only seven NFL seasons.

 

Bucs fire WR and RB coaches, QB coach retires

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are making more changes to their offensive coaching staff

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are making more changes to their offensive coaching staff following the firing of offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich on Thursday.

Wide receivers coach Kevin Garver and running backs coach Todd McNair have also been fired, while quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen is retiring, per multiple reports.

Tampa Bay’s offense struggled mightily this season after experiencing three years of impressive numbers under Leftwich and his staff. After averaging more than 30 points per game over the past two seasons, Tampa Bay averaged just 18 in 2022, and had the league’s worst rushing attack.

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Bucs QB coach on Tom Brady: ‘You can’t convince him we’re not going to win the Super Bowl’

Despite all of the adversity he and his team have faced this year, Tom Brady is still convinced they can make another Super Bowl run

As you might have noticed, the 2022 season hasn’t exactly gone as well as the Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were hoping.

After a Super Bowl win in 2020, and a franchise-record 13 regular-season wins in 2021, the Bucs limped to an 8-9 record, the first losing season of Brady’s 23-year NFL career.

Along the way, Brady and the Bucs have dealt with tons of adversity, both on and off the field.

Even so, they did just enough to win the NFC South for the second straight year, earning a third consecutive trip to the playoffs.

Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times recently sat down with Bucs quarterback coach Clyde Christensen to talk about everything Brady’s had to overcome while leading his team to another division title this year:

“If you talk about running a marathon and everything is right, it’s a hard race,” said Clyde Christensen, Brady’s quarterbacks coach for the past three seasons with the Bucs. “Now you start putting on a weight belt, then you add a couple weights to the belt and the next thing you know, those 26 miles are not just a tough race, they’re brutal. Playing quarterback in the NFL, and especially if you’re Tom Brady, it’s … a tough, tough, long race and now you wear a weight vest and a weight belt and some weighted shoes. At the 15-mile mark somebody says, ‘Hey, carry this.’ That’s how I would describe it.

“He’s not your average guy. When he goes out there, everyone expects him to play well, week in and week out. It was an unbelievable strain and accomplishment to win the division this year with all that took place.”

The strain, of course, was personal and professional. Brady missed a week of training camp, working through a divorce from his wife of 13 years, Gisele Bündchen. He dropped about 20 pounds. He lost starting center Ryan Jensen to a knee injury on the second day of camp.

“You literally start weighted down with some personal things that are hard and they’re full time,” Christensen said. “I think that would be different than all the other years. None of us knows what that entails but I do know it’s a hard, hard job if everything is right. It’s hard job if all is well around you.

“All of a sudden, you have that, you lose your center on the (second) practice of the season. You proceed to have people in and out of the lineup. I do think it’s a unique (season) and we just never overly played well, which always falls on the quarterback. … I don’t think anyone will understand the strain it is for the quarterback or the face of the franchise to fight through all that stuff.”

Despite all of their struggles this season, Brady still has the Bucs in a position to make another Super Bowl run this year, starting with Monday night’s wild-card game against the Dallas Cowboys.

Christensen’s last quote to Stroud says it all:

“You can’t convince him we’re not going to win the Super Bowl.”

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Kyle Trask unlikely to compete for Bucs’ backup QB job in 2022

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ second-round pick in 2021 is expected to be on clipboard duty for a second straight season

When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers spent a second-round pick in the 2021 NFL draft on Florida quarterback Kyle Trask, it was an effort to plan for the eventuality of life after Tom Brady.

But with Brady back for a third season with the Bucs, it looks like Trask is headed for a second straight year of clipboard duty.

Speaking to the media Tuesday, Bucs quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen said he doesn’t expect Trask to compete with veteran Blaine Gabbert for the backup job behind Brady this year (via The Athletic’s Greg Auman).

Trask has gotten nothing but positive reviews from coaches since joining the team, but it’s understandable that some Bucs fans wonder whether or not the team would have been better off spending that pick on a player that could have helped them repeat as Super Bowl champions last year.

While Trask was inactive for every game last season, the Bucs struggled with injuries on both sides of the ball, exposing a lack of quality depth at multiple positions that could have been addressed with some young talent at No. 64 overall in last year’s draft.

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Bucs QB Clyde Christensen says it will be Arians’ offense ‘with a Brady influence’

Bucs QB coach Clyde Christensen says the Bucs offense will remain Arians’, but will have a Tom Brady influence.

Shortly before Tom Brady announced his decision to leave the New England Patriots, it was reported that the six-time Super Bowl champion was looking to have a say in the offensive game plane with any team he joined.

So, with the Buccaneers having emerged as the big winners in the Brady sweepstakes, the question is just how much input will Brady have on Bruce Arians’ offense, which ranked third overall last season, averaging 397.9 yards per game? The fact the Bucs traded for tight end Rob Gronkowski seems to indicate that Arians is willing to incorporate tight ends more into the passing game, rather than just use them as blockers.

Bucs QB coach Clyde Christensen spoke to Bob Kravitz of The Athletic recently about Brady joining the Buccaneers, and addressed the question about whose offense we’ll see on the field in 2020.

Per Christensen:

“I think what we’ll see here (in Tampa) is Bruce’s offense with a Brady influence. Bruce wants to keep the offense the same. We did some good things last year. Tom has been terrific as far as saying, ‘Just tell me what you want to do.’ And honestly, there’s a lot of carry-over from all these offenses; it’s just what you call certain things. We’re looking forward to seeing how he can influence the offense. He’ll make it better. That’s what the great ones do. He’ll have some great ideas, so we’re anxious to get his take on things.”

It sounds like Brady and Arians are on the same page so far, with neither one trying to assert themselves over the other. Brady will happily take over Arians’ pass-happy offense that features Mike Evans and Chris Godwin.

Again, we’ll likely see more of Brady’s influence in the utilization of tight ends and running backs in the passing game. Keep in mind the Bucs drafted Vanderbilt running back Ke’Shawn Vaughn in the third round of last month’s draft because they loved his pass-catching potential.

The Brady-Arians relationship can create something special this season. All they need now is to get on the field together.

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Bucs QB coach talks about working with Brady amid COVID-19 restrictions

Buccaneers QB coach Clyde Christensen spoke to The Athletic about what it’s been like working with Tom Brady during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will have the greatest quarterback of all time lining up under center for them when the 2020 season kicks off.

The only question is, when will that be?

While the NFL released its 17-week schedule last week with the hope that the season will begin on time, given the coronavirus and the current restrictions imposed due to the pandemic, it remains to be seen when players and coaches will be allowed back in their facilities.

For a guy like Tom Brady, who spent his entire 20-year career in New England playing for one coach, learning a new system and ingratiating himself into the Bucs locker room will take time. Not being able to meet with teammates and coaches right now could slow the process of him picking up this offense.

Bucs QB coach Clyde Christensen recently spoke to The Athletic and talked about what it has been liking working with his new quarterback while dealing with the coronavirus crisis.

Per Christensen:

“Well, we can’t meet, we can’t do a lot yet, so it’s just a matter of getting him and his family settled, taking care of the logistics so that when we do tee it up, he’ll be ready to go. We’ve gotten him some information, so he can look at that. But we’ve had some great conversations on the phone… And I know he’ll learn the offense and everything else he needs to know. He’s Tom Brady. He’s been around for a while. I think about it, it’s going to be a really tough year for teams with new staff. We’ve got 21 guys who know what to do but you look at Cleveland, they’re a whole new staff, nobody knows anything. I’ll be interested to see how that works for them.”

Christensen’s concerns about teams with new staffs is warranted. Zoom meetings are fine, but they can’t replace in-person interaction, especially when it comes to getting to know someone. For the record, new Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, who was hired by Cleveland in January, finally made the move from Minnesota to Ohio last weekend. Stefanski delayed the move with his family because of the ongoing pandemic.

While Brady isn’t the only player this offseason trying to learn a new system with a new team, he is the most notable one. And, all eyes will be on him and the Bucs in 2020, so getting Brady comfortable in this offense is the top priority.

Fortunately, it sounds like Christensen and Brady are finding a way to make things work right now.

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