INDIANAPOLIS – The Dallas Cowboys understand that the run game needs to take a significant step next season under new coach Brian Schottenheimer and offensive coordinator Klayton Adams.
Since hiring Schottenheimer as the franchise’s 10th coach last month, owner and general manager Jerry Jones and executive vice president Stephen Jones have repeated the team aims to “marry” the run game with the pass game.
On Thursday, Schottenheimer detailed the expectations and vision of his offense. It marked his first time speaking publicly since his introductory press conference on Jan. 25.
“At the end of the day, you have to be able to run the football,” Schottenheimer said at the NFL Scouting Combine. “We’ve made a commitment that we want to be great on both sides of the line of scrimmage. That’s a huge part of it. The way I say it, ‘When teams know you’re going to run the ball, you have to be able to run the ball and conversely stop the run.’
“Depending on how the roster is filled and how it’s constructed, we want to be able to feature our guys and what they do well, and we want to be multiple.”
Personnel remains an issue. The Cowboys have just two tailbacks – Deuce Vaughn and Hunter Luepke – under contract through 2025, with last year’s starter Rico Dowdle set to hit free agency next month.
Dowdle rushed for a career-high 1,079 rushing yards last season. However, Dallas’ run game struggled and represented one of many issues that emerged from the team’s 7-10 disappointing campaign. Backup Ezekiel Elliott compiled 226 rushing yards across 74 carries. No other player reached 100 rushing yards.
Overall, the Cowboys finished 27th in the NFL in rushing yards (1,705), 24th in rush attempts (429) and dead last in rushing touchdowns (six).
Insert Adams, who arrives to Dallas as a highly regarded offensive line coach.
He spent the past two seasons with the Arizona Cardinals, who finished last season seventh in rushing (144.2 yards per game) and second in yards per carry (5.3). While the Cowboys had just six rushing touchdowns, Arizona’s lead tailback James Conner had eight rushing touchdowns himself. The Cardinals had 18 rushing touchdowns, which ranked ninth in the league.
In addition to Adams, the Cowboys also hired new running backs coach Derrick Foster.
Adams is expected to aid Schottenheimer in weekly offensive game planning with Schottenheimer serving as the main play caller on game days.
“[We’re] trying to mesh the vision of what [Schottenheimer] wants,” Adams said. “I think it would be dumb on my part to try to force a lot of things on that call sheet that he doesn’t want to call or he doesn’t feel comfortable calling.
“We’re working hard to evaluate what we have here, I think that there’s a lot of nice pieces to work with and we’ll continue to go down that road as we work through player acquisition.”
The Cowboys have an excellent opportunity this weekend to evaluate this year’s running back class, which is considered deep and talented by many NFL draft analysts. The class is headlined by Boise State tailback and Frisco, Texas native Ashton Jeanty, who led the FBS in rushing yards and scrimmage yards in 2024, compiling 2,601 yards across 374 carries with 29 touchdowns.
The position group is scheduled to participate in on-field workouts on Saturday afternoon at Lucas Oil Stadium, with more than 30 running back prospects in attendance at this week’s NFL scouting combine.
Schottenheimer, Adams, Foster and the rest of the team’s coaching staff and front office will be closely monitoring all the workouts from inside a suite at the Colts’ home stadium.
The Cowboys possess five draft picks, including the No. 12 selection and three picks in the top 100. Additionally, the Cowboys are expected to receive up to four compensatory picks.
Asked to describe his ideal running back, Schottenheimer offered his lengthy reply: “You want a guy that’s got vision. You want a guy that has contact balance. The fronts that we’re seeing, the fronts that we’re facing, require guys to be able to make hidden yards, whether there’s a free safety in the hole or there’s a linebacker or a defensive lineman coming off the point of attack, you’ve got to have a guy who is willing to run through arm tackles.
“I do believe that you have to have the ability to catch the ball coming out of the backfield. Why do I say that? If a team wants to commit to stopping the run, there’s ways they can try to do that. We don’t want to take an elite runner or a position like that out of the game, so if a team is doing a nice job stopping the running game, you want to be able to get them involved throwing it to them.
“That doesn’t mean they have to play like a receiver, but they have to be able to run routes coming out of the backfield and have the ability to separate and run after the catch is important.”
