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After hiring Mike McCarthy's old offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer, as their new head coach, the Dallas Cowboys have begun the process of building out their coaching staff, with Matt Eberflus signing on as defensive coordinator marking the first shoe to drop in that process.
Fast forward a week, and it would appear Schottenheimer has secured his new offensive coordinator, hiring former Arizona Cardinals offensive line coach Klayton Adams for the role, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.
“Cowboys are hiring Cardinals offensive line coach Klayton Adams as their offensive coordinator, per source,” Schefter wrote. “Adams now will be paired with Matt Eberflus as the two new Cowboys coordinators under head coach Brian Schottenheimer.”
A native of Sacramento, California who played his college ball at Boise State before transitioning to the coaching ranks, Adams has a decade in the trenches, literally, as an assistant coach, working in the college ranks from 2005 through 2018 before becoming an offensive line and tight ends coach in the NFL for the Indianapolis Colts and then the Arizona Cardinals.
Has Adams ever called plays at the NFL level? No, he hasn't been in such a role since his time in college, but according to his official bio on the Cardinals website, he does have experience orchestrating plays, as he was the run game coordinator for Indianapolis as recently as 2022 with the Stanford Cardinals.
Adams coached tight ends his final two seasons (2021-22) with Indianapolis after working as the team's assistant offensive line coach for two years (2019-20). Prior to starting his NFL coaching career, Adams spent 14 seasons working at the collegiate level. Before coming to Arizona, he was hired as Stanford's offensive line coach and run game coordinator in December of 2022.
Is Adams an attractive pick for the position? In a word, no: Adams has no real experience calling passing plays at the NFL level, and even if he won't be doing so in Dallas, there were more interesting prospects available, like Bobby Slowik, who could add a nice complement to what the Cowboys have been doing over the past few years. With that being said, considering how the rest of the Cowboys offseason has shaken out so far, it's hard to imagine Jerry Jones ponying up for an elite offensive coordinator prospect when he wasn't willing to do the same thing for his head coach. And hey, if Adams can get the Cowboys rushing attack back on track, maybe this signing will age incredibly well over the next year.
