The latest and greatest news surrounding the Cowboys is here.
Cowboys name Klayton Adams new offensive coordinator – Todd Archer, ESPN
Dallas keeps filling out their new coaching staff.
While Brian Schottenheimer will call plays in his first year as the Dallas Cowboys’ coach, he has hired his offensive coordinator in former Arizona Cardinals offensive line coach Klayton Adams.
Adams, 41, spent the past two seasons in that role for the Cardinals and is well regarded across the league for his run game. The Cardinals had the seventh-ranked run game in the NFL last year (144.2 yards per game) and were second in yards per carry (5.3).
James Conner had 1,094 yards and eight rushing touchdowns for Arizona in 2024. The Cowboys were led by Rico Dowdle, who is set to be an unrestricted free agent, with 1,079 yards and just two touchdowns. The Cowboys had only six rushing touchdowns on the season.
The Cowboys are expected to hire an offensive line coach in addition to having Adams.
Before joining Arizona, Adams spent four seasons with the Indianapolis Colts, working with the tight ends and serving as an assistant offensive line coach.
Ready to run? Here’s what Cowboys new OC hire could mean for Dallas’ offense – Calvin Watkins, DMN
The Cowboys look like they want to run more, but who’s going to carry the rock?
With Schottenheimer as the offensive play caller and with the run schemes Adams used with the Arizona Cardinals in his two seasons as the offensive line coach, this might be a good fit.
In 2024, Arizona finished 7th in rushing yards (2,451) and yards per game (144.2). The previous season, the Cardinals were fourth in rushing yards (2,365) and yards per game (139.1).
The problem with all this success in Arizona is that Dallas doesn’t have a lead running back for the 2025 season or a quarterback that moves.
Dallas Cowboys making one thing clear in Schottenheimer era: They will ‘run the damn ball’ – Nick Harris, Star Telegram
Harris with some early ideas about who could end up carrying the rock.
In 2024, the Cardinals led the NFL in post-snap pulling with offensive linemen in the run game, as Adams specialized in intricate blocking schemes that allowed for multiple blockers to pave holes for running backs such as veteran James Conner who finished with the highest single-season rushing total (1,094 yards) in his seven-year career.
While at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., the Cowboys’ scouting department put in a lot of work in interviewing multiple running backs such as UCF’s R.J. Harvey, USC’s Woody Marks and Kansas’ Devin Neal among others. With Rico Dowdle set to hit free agency, Deuce Vaughn is the only running back from the 2024 active roster signed for next season. Drafting one running back, if not two, was already a necessity. With a now clear emphasis on establishing a run game, it’s now become a requirement.
Whether it’s drafting Heisman Trophy runner-up Ashton Jeanty with the No. 12 overall pick or selecting production machines such as Harvey or Neal later on, the need is there for a running weapon in a league where Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry have powered their teams to deep playoff runs.
With the right hire and weapons in place to do that, it will only make life easier for Dak Prescott and the beginning of the Schottenheimer era.
Interesting to note that AZ’s run game has been more diverse (and effective) with its run scheme than DAL since Adams came on board prior to 2023, notably using “counter” concept runs much more frequently (over 3x more) over the past 2 seasons. #Cowboys https://t.co/KpmsatD9QQ
— John Owning (@JohnOwning) January 27, 2025
Courtesy of @JohnOwning, here’s a direct comparison of run concepts between the two teams.
What to expect from new Cowboys offensive coordinator Klayton Adams – David Howman, Blogging The Boys
Here are the important nuggets about Klayton Adams.
Adams’ coaching background has exposed him to a variety of different offensive schemes. It began in his playing days, when the California native committed to Boise State, back when Dan Hawkins was the head coach and Chris Petersen – soon to be the face of the program – was coordinating the offense. There, Adams was exposed to a variety of different run schemes due to the multiple nature of the Boise State offense that Kellen Moore later drew on to jumpstart his own coaching career.
After graduating, Adams started coaching as a graduate assistant at his alma mater. He moved on to various stints at FCS programs before coaching tight ends at San Jose State. When his head coach, Mike MacIntyre, took the head job at Colorado, Adams followed. Over six seasons in Boulder, Adams worked with running backs, tight ends, and the offensive line. He also added co-offensive coordinator duties to his plate in his final season with the Buffaloes.
MacIntyre was fired following that 2018 season, which led to Adams jumping to the NFL. He was hired as the assistant offensive line coach for the Colts, reuniting him with his former position coach at Boise State, Chris Strausser. There, Adams was part of an offensive staff led by head coach Frank Reich, who called the offensive plays. Adams’ first season saw two offensive linemen earn Pro Bowl nods for the first time.
After two seasons assisting Strausser with the offensive line, Adams opted to return to college to coach the offensive line at Arizona State under Herm Edwards. However, the Colts lost their tight ends coach to the Eagles just a few days later and enticed Adams to return for the tight ends job, which he accepted.
After two seasons coaching the tight ends, which ended with Reich being fired midway through the year, Adams left for the offensive line job with the Cardinals. There, he took a prominent role under offensive coordinator Drew Petzing, a longtime disciple of Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski.
Between Petzing and Adams, the Cardinals have built an offense that, in many ways, mirrors the offense that Stefanski runs in Cleveland. There are strong influences of the Shanahan type offense that Stefanski majored in with the Vikings, but with a more varied blocking scheme in the run game.
Cowboys fans should watch this… https://t.co/QwfeJ4SXsH
— ₗₐₙᴰₒₙ (@McCoolBCB) January 31, 2025
“Those no-good, dirty, filthy, rotten Cowboys stole our best assistant coach.”
“It’s a dark day for Cardinals fans. Two years of quality offensive line play, is it back to the slums for the red birds in the trenches?”
New hires could make defense a strong suit for Schottenheimer, Cowboys – Ben Grimaldi, WFAA
New defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus and company offer some hope for the defense in 2025.
Eberflus was instrumental in coaching up Shaq (Darius) Leonard into a four-time All-Pro during his time with the Colts. Young LBs DeMarvion Overshown and Marist Liufau could thrive under Eberflus. However, like those coordinators before him, Eberflus needs a strong interior presence on the defensive line, something the team still needs to find.
Schottenheimer continued to build the defense by hiring Andre Curtis to be the passing game coordinator. Curtis was previously the secondary coach with the Bears, so he worked under Eberflus. From 2018-2021, Curtis was the passing game coordinator with the Seattle Seahawks, when Schottenheimer was the offensive coordinator, and led two safeties – Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs – to All-Pro years.
The Cowboys also added another defensive assistant with ties to the Cowboys and Eberflus, hiring Dave Borgonzi to coach the linebackers. Borgonzi held the same position with the Colts and Bears over the last seven seasons, making him a part of Eberflus’ strong suit.
One of the more important hires on the defense came when Aaron Whitecotton was brought on to coach the defensive line. Whitecotton had been the New York Jets’ DL coach where he helped Quinnen Williams become one of the best defensive tackles in the league and built up one of the best defensive lines in the NFL during his four-year tenure.
positions being filled quickly now by the #Cowboys.
a key notable here is that Aaron Whitecotton was heralded as a D-line coach out of NYJ and learned/operated under Robert Saleh’s defensive mind. https://t.co/kmv18WbhWN
— Patrik [No C] Walker (@VoiceOfTheStar) January 29, 2025
For Will McClay, Cowboys, strengths of 2025 NFL draft could align with team’s weaknesses – Calvin Watkins, Dallas Morning News
Things are set up for the Cowboys to have a successful draft in April.
The Cowboys picking 12th overall in the NFL Draft can be viewed in two different avenues.
It’s positive because it’s likely you’ll get a player within the top-10 ranked prospects on your draft board.
The negative is obvious. Picking 12th means the previous season didn’t go well.
Will McClay, the vice president of player personnel, understands this more than anyone because it means you have holes to fill after a 7-10 finish to the 2024 season.
“You pick them where you are,” McClay said as he viewed Senior Bowl practices from Mobile, Ala. “It’s not a great pick because that means that we were not picking at the bottom, so that’s why you don’t like 12. You want to be picking at the bottom of the round. Where we’re picking tells us how far we gotta go. But that 12th pick gives you an opportunity now, instead of picking 19 you just moving up more slots to pick a better player now you gotta try to pick them right.”
The strengths of this draft fall within the holes of this Cowboys’ team. The running back and interior defensive line positions are weaknesses for the 2025 season.
Stephen Jones: Cowboys’ championship drought ‘sits with us in a hard way’ – Staff, DMN
The Cowboys PR department likely came down hard on Stephen after he airquoted the Cowboys championship “drought.” Here he is trying to “change the narrative.”
On Thursday, Jones made an appearance on SiruisXM’s NFL Radio where he discussed the Schottenheimer hire in further detail, and he made clear that the 29-year championship game drought is something that weighs heavily on him and the rest of the Cowboys brass. Or, at least, Jones made clear he’s aware that it exists.
“We just felt like we needed some change, needed the freshness,” Jones said when explaining their decision to part ways with Mike McCarthy. “Obviously, we wanna change the narrative. Our narrative is that we haven’t been in a championship game or a Super Bowl in 30 years. That sits with us in a hard way.
“We know we have to be better. You can’t expect to keep doing the same things over and over and expect a different result.”
