A few days ago, the new head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Brian Schottenheimer, led a press conference at the team’s facilities at The Star to introduce his updated coaching staff, where the main idea was the need to build close relationships with his players.
Meanwhile, for the team’s new offensive model, its brand new coordinator, Klayton Adams, spoke about this goal in his unit, although he noted that the project of Mike McCarthy this idea existed, although it was not central to the operation of the team
building on brotherhood 🧱
OC Klayton Adams talked about supporting the 'Boys pic.twitter.com/g6KPQRYMH2
— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) February 19, 2025
In the NFL, Adams is recognized for his successful work with the offensive line, particularly with the Arizona Cardinals, who were in the top 10 in rushing offense in 2024. However, his design of an offense is different from what the Cowboys have and he said he wants deep communication that includes his stars, Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb.
Cowboys’ offense returns to basics
“We have to get past the point where we’re all trying to speak the same language, which is where we are now. I want to have a great relationship with all these guys and I really want to build genuine relationships,” he explained at his presentation.
“We’re going to have a very clear, agreed-upon standard of what we expect from them. For me, that’s going to start on the offensive line. I’m very excited to develop a relationship with those guys, but I need to have that same relationship with Dak [Prescott], with CeeDee [Lamb], so my time is going to be distributed a little bit more that way, but it’s going to start on the offensive line.”
#Cowboys OC Klayton Adams talking about his admiration and appreciation for offensive line coach Conor Riley.
A pre-existing bond between the OC and the O-line coach?? Oh this is gonna be good.
(🎥: @dallascowboys) pic.twitter.com/Z7E195B7Ge
— Brandon Loree (@Brandoniswrite) February 19, 2025
According to this comment, Adams believes that the trenches is a good place to start, and that’s his specialty, that’s where he excels. He also has a talented group in the trenches, mainly left guard Tyler Smith, who looks like his main talent, in case veteran Zack Martin retires or leaves for another team
In addition, the team has Cooper Beebe at center, veteran Terence Steele at right tackle, and Tyler Guyton, Brock Hoffman, TJ Bass and Chuma Edoga. Their goals for 2025 are to reactivate the ground attack and protect a quarterback who will have less and less mobility and will have to stay in the pocket
While the work with the aerial attack will be handled by Schottenheimer, who announced that he will work directly with Lamb and Prescott
Other important concepts of Klayton Adams’ offense
The offense that Adams intends to design also seeks to change one of the great criticisms that has been attributed to the Cowboys in the last decade: it is a team that does not punish physically, neither in defense nor in offense
Without mincing words, Adams simply said he wants his players to “be violent”. “The same thing I want from every player on the offense, and that’s to generate violence in the game, to be aggressive, to run, to hit,” Adams said. “I think every decision we make schematically has to go that way. If there’s a gray area, what’s going to keep these guys free, what’s going to allow them to play more freely, run, hit and be violent?” he said
This seems like great news, as last year, even the team was rated as soft
The team’s design of Adams and Schottenheimer have insisted that one of their priorities is to improve their ability to run the ball, to have a version of what the team was in 2016 with the then rookie sensation, Ezekiel Elliott.
To that end, Adams said his entire unit looks for “the creation of violence.”