Revenge of the Birds
To the Cowboy’s benefit and the Cardinals’ detriment?
Note: here is what I was writing yesterday before the news came in that the Cardinals hired Ohio State’s associate head coach/offensive line guru Justin Frye. Rather than just let this work go to waste, I’d like to put my confusions about the loss of Klayton Adams on record. Near the end of this article, I will draw a line at the spot where I ended and then add some of the lingering questions I have about how and why Michael Bidwill, Monti Ossenfort and Jonathan Gannon elected to let go of Klayton Adams in favor of hiring Justin Frye.
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The only position coach that Michael Bidwill and Monti Ossenfort hired in 2023 to have produced two years of top 10 excellence was offensive line coach Klayton Adams. Today we have to say “was” because Jerry Jones and his new head coach Brian Schottenheimer identified Klayton Adams as one of the premium offensive line coaches in the NFL. They swept into the desert like tumbleweed and managed to sign Adams to be their offensive coordinator —- seemingly without any significanr resistance from the Cardinals.
Yesterday, fearing that Michael Bidwill and Monte Ossenfort would help accommodate Klayton Adams’ move to the Cowboys, I wrote this:
Therefore, from the football side of things, the question moving forward is —- can and will Michael Bidwill be more accommodating for his current GM, head coach, coordinators, coaching staff and players?
For example, word today is that Cardinals OL coach Klayton Adams, whom some like me believe is the best and most valuable coach on the Cardinals’ staff, is now being called in for a 2nd interview with the Cowboys for their OC position. If Michael Bidwill sits by and allows this to happen, it will feel like it did in Minnesota when JG opted to play prevent defense with a 6-point lead and allowed Justin Jefferson to run wide open, even on 4th and 7 with the game on the line.
Michael Bidwill’s letting go of Klayton Adams would be an extremely generous accommodation to Jerry Jones and the Cowboys, all to the detriment of his own team.
Voila!
This savvy team-strengthening move by the Cowboys, who fully expect Brian Schottenheimer to call the plays, is akin to what Bruce Arians did when he hired Harold Goodwin to be his OC. A more recent example is Mike McDaniel’s hiring of Frank Smith to be the Dolphins’ OC, run game coordinator and offensive line overseer.
Here’s the gist —- Klayton Adams is being hired to do exactly what he was responsible for in Arizona.
I have been calling Klayton Adams the Kliff Kingsbury of offensive line coaches for his remarkable ability to get more out of less. Just as Kingsbury generated four different 4th quarter leads in games down the stretch in 2022 with 4 different QBs playing behind makeshift offensive lines that were missing 4 starters (only Kelvin Beachum remaining), look at how successful Klayton...
