Dallas Cowboys new offensive coordinator, Klayton Adams’ background is on the offensive line, so it should come as no surprise that his philosophy is about overpowering an opponent.
Adams said on Tuesday that his message for players is that they will play physically.
“The same thing that I want from every player on offense, and that is to create violence in the game,” Adams said via the team’s official website. “Be aggressive, run, hit, I think that every decision that we make schematically needs to lean that direction. So if there’s a gray area, what is going to allow these guys to play more free and run and hit and be violent?”
A walk-on offensive lineman at Boise State, Adams has spent most of his coaching career guiding the hogs. The 41-year-old spent the bulk of his early career in college before making the leap to the pros with the Indianapolis Colts in 2019 as an assistant offensive line coach. He then moved to tight ends coach in Indy for two seasons (2021-2022). He spent the past two years as the Arizona Cardinals offensive line coach.
New Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer hired Adams as his offensive coordinator. The OC will not call plays but rather help build the weekly game plan.
“At the end of the day, our job when we’re putting things on the call sheet is to be problem solvers,” Adams said. “We’re trying to figure out what do we do good and how do we make that look multiple? How do we make that look different? That’s the part that I’m really looking forward to focusing on.”
Part of Adams’ job will be to coax better play out of the offensive line. Questions about Zack Martin’s future in Dallas abound as he heads toward free agency or potential retirement. Then there is the backfield, which could start over with Rico Dowdle, who is also a free agent.
It’s not that often an offensive line coach gets elevated to an OC role, but Adams won’t wholly depart from his roots.
“I definitely won’t stay away from that,” Adams said of coaching the offensive line. “I think that’s a little bit to be determined exactly how all those things are going to work because we need to get out coach these guys a little bit and we need to get past the point where we’re just all trying to speak the same language which is kind of where we’re at right now.”
“I want to have a great relationship with all these guys, and I really want to build genuine relationships so that they know that I’m here to help them play the best football of their careers and that they know we’re going to have a very clear and communicated standard for what we expect from them.”
