Blogging The Boys
Klayton Adams is going to bring a lot to the Dallas Cowboys.
The Dallas Cowboys hired former Arizona Cardinals offensive line coach Klayton Adams as their new offensive coordinator. Many are happy about the hire due to the Cardinals' overachieving in the run game during his time in the desert. Will he be able to duplicate that success in Dallas? It’s unclear what things will look like, but here are three things we should expect after adding Adams to the coaching staff.
With a run-game specialist as the new OC, it’s no secret the Cowboys will focus on improving their ability to run the ball. Dallas finished as the third-worst rushing efficiency team last year with just 4.0 yards per attempt. During his time with the Cardinals, Adams’ squad ranked second in the league with 5.0 yards per attempt in 2023 and 5.3 yards per attempt last year. Running the ball effectively is going to be priority one.
It helps when you have a capable running back handling the workload and the Cardinals have had that in James Conner. Over his career, he’s been a steady 700-yards-per-year type of runner, but during these past two seasons, we’ve seen a jump in production.
That is a 300-yard-per-season jump for Conner since Adams started coaching the Cardinals offensive line. His only two 1,000-yard seasons have come with Adams and also include the two best yards-per-attempt years of his career.
While Conner has been a good running back over the years, he’s not one of those dynamic playmakers like Saquon Barkley or Jahmyr Gibbs. Instead, he’s a straight line running with a bit of wiggle and enough physicality to punish arm tacklers. He’s not electric, but he’s effective. In a lot of ways, he’s like Rico Dowdle. A lot of ways. Check out their 2024 rushing stats...
That is not to say the Cowboys will again be content with re-signing Dowdle and calling it good. Even with Conner playing well, the Cardinals drafted Florida State’s Trey Benson in the third round. He was the second running back taken in last year’s draft. The Cowboys must take action to upgrade the running back position group, but it might not come in the form of using their 12th overall pick on Ashton Jeanty as many expect.
The success the Cardinals had running the ball isn’t predicated on having a star running back, but rather having all hands on deck when run blocking. Our own David Howman did a great job [breaking down what we should expect...
