New Cowboys offensive coordinator Klayton Adams wants ‘aggressive, violent’ style brought to Dallas
While new Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer will be the voice on the sideline calling plays on offense in 2025, intrigue has developed in his offensive coordinator hire Klayton Adams as he embarks on the first NFL coordinator job of his 20-year coaching career.
It was a long awaited opportunity for Adams who can now help lead an offense that was first in scoring just two seasons ago but is in desperate need of configuration heading into the 2025 season.
“The opportunity to be a coordinator and sit in that chair was a goal and something that I wanted to do at some point,” Adams said. “Being able to do it with the Dallas Cowboys is an even bigger opportunity.”
Coming from the Arizona Cardinals where he had been the offensive line coach since 2023, Adams is expected to bring a versatile and creative run game scheme into the building to mesh with Schottenheimer’s West Coast style pass attack that saw him have success in Seattle under Russell Wilson. With a healthy combination of both ideals, Adams sees a productive offense on the horizon.
“[I’m] trying to mesh with the vision of what [Schottenheimer] wants,” he said. “I think it would be dumb on my part to force things on that call sheet that he doesn’t want to call...It’s going to be a growing process.”
“When we’re putting things on the call sheet, how we make it look multiple? How do we make it look different? That’s the part that I’m really looking forward to focusing on.”
Much like Schottenheimer, Adams is a relationships-first coach. While he hasn’t been able to meet with players to talk football yet per league rules, he looks forward to building strong connections with the offensive linemen, CeeDee Lamb, Dak Prescott and the entire offensive personnel both on and off the field.
“I want to have a good relationship with all of these guys,” he said. “I want to have genuine relationships so that they know I’m here to help them play the best football of their careers and that they know we’re going to have a clear and communicated standard of what we expect from that.”
In Prescott’s case, getting the most out of the four years remaining on his contract will include how to keep him healthy. After missing the final nine games last season due to a torn hamstring, his third year missing five or more games in the last five seasons, keeping him out of harm’s way will have to be an offensive focus.
With that being said, Prescott plays his best when he can maximize his mobility both inside and outside of the pocket. With Adams coming from a scheme in Arizona where the Cardinals maximized Kyler Murray’s athleticism routinely, the desire for some carryover could exist.
“I think that it certainly can help you when you have the ability,” Adams said. “When you’re reading a run [from the quarterback], it essentially is taking a [defender] off the board on defense. Any time you have the ability back there to read with that guy, it’s a bonus for you.”
With or without that wrinkle in the offense, Adams will get a better understanding of what can and cannot be implemented when the team arrives for OTAs and minicamp in May and he gets a better feel of the team’s varying skillsets. But one thing that Adams can bank on being a part of the offensive philosophy is already set in place.
“The same thing that I want from every player on offense, and that is to create violence in the game,” he said. “Be aggressive, run, hit. I think any decision that we make schematically needs to lean that direction.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM.
