Klayton Adams: Flashes of What We Want To Be | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Klayton Adams: Flashes of What We Want To Be | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Calvin Watkins, Dallas Morning News. Uh your thoughts on how you think the run game operated uh in that first game with this Philly? Um I would say there were moments uh where we kind of looked like we knew what we were doing. Um there’s some moments where, you know, we’d like to build on what was happening and then ultimately when we needed to run the ball to win the game, we couldn’t do that and that was pretty disappointing at the end. So there was uh you know just like from a teaching perspective there’s a ton of great stuff on the tape where you go all right well we need to make sure this doesn’t happen again or uh we can build off of what’s happening here. Um in regards to the guys knowing what they’re supposed to do. I was pleased with that. Um but we just need to execute a little bit better. Guys up front. You had young guys with Booker um and then obviously Gen he’s played before. How do you think they they fared in that in the run game? Um, I think that just in terms of the environment and um, some of the things that we were asking him to do for the first time really in kind of a live setting because for really a lot of our live settings throughout the offseason, you’re still there’s always that that coach in the back of your mind that’s like, I don’t I don’t want to put any of this stuff on tape. Um, but I was encouraged by it. Uh, I think it’s one of those situations you look at and you go like, “All right, we see flashes of what we want to be when we grow up, but uh, we’re yeah, there’s we’re a long ways from where we want to be.” Todd our show at ESPN. Last week, you faced a good front. This week, another good front. Washington has a decent front. Is how much is it just an every week thing that you have to get used to when you when you’re going against teams in the league? Yeah, I I think it’s it’s really the entire league. I think is there even, you know, I I learned uh early the first couple years that I was coaching in the NFL that uh watching the injury report as a coach is is probably the dumbest thing you can do because you go, “Oh, well, this guy’s not playing.” And then the guy that comes in after that kind of whips your butt. So, um these guys are all NFL football players. Obviously, there’s outliers and there’s guys that um are truly special, but there you’re not going to go against guys in the NFL that just aren’t any good. We asked you before about sitting up in the press or in the coaches booth watching the games. Is it are you still getting used to that? And is it hard not to get your hands on a guy in between series or or I know you can talk to them, but it may be different face to face. Yeah, I’m still getting used to it. Um, I think that it’s definitely the best place for me based on uh the way that our staff is set up and I know that uh I can help shotty the best for, you know, for my role from that vantage point. And so, uh, that’s why I think it’s a really good thing that I need to continue to improve and get better at. Um, but yeah, I I the the piece that is hardest for me is there’s times I think between a series where you can look a guy in the eyes and go, “Yeah, he ain’t telling me the truth.” Or or, “Hey, we need to keep running the ball here because these dudes are really feeling it.” And so that’s the part that I’m trying to get used to is gauging that from that perspective and that vantage point. John Modto with the Athletic, Brian talked about uh you having a great sense of humor and I was wondering where do you show that most? Is it on the practice field? Uh in meetings? Uh I don’t I don’t know. Uh probably um is I try to be myself all the time. Um it’s probably uh it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to be truly who I am like in this setting right here. But like uh they sound like Sorenson almost did in the in the last um interview. But yeah, I don’t know. I I don’t I I tried not to put any barriers on uh who I am and just try to be who I am all the time. And so sometimes that’s in meetings. Sometimes that’s on the practice field. Um sometimes that’s in the meeting room. And then uh first game, Dak Prescott looked like he played pretty well. Uh what did you think? Yeah, I I really thought he did a ton of good things. Um, you know, it’s it’s awesome just to have a guy that can handle so much uh in regards to scheme and protections and reads and um really feeling the es and flows of the game and supporting guys if he feels like they’re not, you know, performing or whatever. I mean, the guy’s an incredible leader and uh I really look forward to more opportunities to watch him play. Joe Hoy, Dallas Morning News. kind of on that note, um Dak shows some mobility um and kind of escaping the pocket a little bit when pressure came. How much of that for a quarterback is having some synchronicity with the offensive line and kind of knowing maybe where they’re kind of pushing guys out or or hey, this guy is going up against this pass rusher, he might beat him here. How much is kind of the relationship between those two? Well, I think that there’s some of that for sure. uh those guys have so much going on in regards to just making sure that bodies are on bodies and then trying to figure out uh where he’s going to start his progression based on what’s happening um coverage-wise. I I think that one of the things that an experienced player and then also just kind of a special type of player like Dak understands is where are the soft spots in this protection? Um, and how is the team that we’re playing going to challenge us? Because we’re always as coaches going to try to find a way to like, all right, the soft spot in this protection is here, but our matchup issue in the protection is here because those two can be different, right? Schematics and versus versus where your your matchup issues are. Um, he does a pretty good job during the week of understanding both of those two things. And so I think especially as you get more comfortable with certain action protections, you know where the weaknesses are. and and he certainly does. And then you are known for variation in the run games in terms of types of runs you guys did. Same thing kind of happened in week one. In terms of that, how much do you kind of go into a game saying, “Hey, we want to get a percentage of zone or percentage of power.” How much do you kind of script that before a game? Uh well, you’re only going to put so many calls on the sheet and so, you know, let’s just say, for example, you’ve got 35 calls or whatever. I’m just making that up as a number. uh you’re going to lean towards the things that you think are going to work. And then I think within the game, there’s there’s times that you go out there and you go, I was wrong about that. You know, we better lower the degree of difficulty here and do some things that we can do or put our guys in position where they can block these guys without, you know, having to think so much. And then there’s games where you you really feel like there’s a lot of different things clicking. And I think when they’re when there are a lot of different things clicking, I think that variation is good. Scottson with the AP. Do you have a standup routine for us? No. No. I uh I do not. I I definitely like watching stand up though. Your two years in Arizona, do you remember how many times you all utilized the third quarterback on game day? That’s a good question. I’m not I I I couldn’t tell you right off the top of my head, but I’m not sure that we did. Do you think you think that rule’s needed? Does it matter much or was it maybe an overreaction to that? That was it was the Denver game during co that that was a reaction to right blew out his elbow or whatever and they Oh yeah, the Philly and San Francisco game. Uh you know, I probably haven’t thought enough about that to to have a true answer for you. and quarterback development. How hard is that in the NFL when QB1 reps are so important? It’s hard. Um, it’s one of the reasons that I think that the preseason games, you know, do have some validity is because, you know, those are some of the few areas where you really see those guys get to play. Um, you know, it’s not really up to me, so I’m not taking a stand on it or anything like that, but that is definitely the preseason and training camp is where those guys get the most opportunity to do things live. Nick Harris, footwork starts telegram. Explosive run plays kind of few and far between for this team over the past couple of years. That 50 yard run from my Sanders, what worked from an operation standpoint from running back to offensive line to make that play happen? Uh he did a good job of sticking with it. And then you know the other thing was on that particular play uh we got what we would call uh our premier look. Um the look that you’re really hunting when you when you install a play. Um and they kind of stemmed into it late and we got the look we were looking for, the leverage that we were looking for and then really the right tackle. Um we had him doing something kind of unique that you wouldn’t normally do versus that look and he executed it really well. And so we were able to get everybody blocked. You usually don’t get that situation um you know within schemes, but when you can find them and try to hunt, you know, a premier look like that and then you get it in the game and the players do a good job executing it. And I did want to ask about Steel crashing down and finding Blake and Ship to open up that last hole. Was that a big part of the operation on that one? Yeah, that was that was what he was supposed to do. And it’s, you know, it was kind of a counterintuitive thing uh that was specialized within that play, but he did a really nice job of executing it. And then as you’ve seen this offense manifest finally into a regular season game in week one, as you look back and you and Brian constructing this offense throughout the offseason, where would you say he allowed your influence to show up the most in this system? Um, you know, I that’s that’s a really good question because really from the very beginning, um, it’s been been just a very open process between he and I and the rest of the offensive staff of of laying out the vision of how do we put our players in the best situation to be successful. And and also from the beginning there had been kind of a a hard red line of we don’t need these guys to have to learn all sorts of new terminology and things like that because that’s the right thing to do, right? When you’ve got an experienced quarterback is we don’t need to, you know, take the offense and make it stand on its head. But where where are areas that we can improve? And so within watching the things that were on tape from before, it’s all right. Well, we’re good at this. Why would we throw that out? or, you know, we probably need a little bit more of XYZ. Let’s let’s look at it and see. And we’re still in that process to be honest with you. Um, I didn’t have any idea going into last Thursday. Um, you know, the things that would look great versus the things that didn’t because there are there are such things as bad practice plays. you know, there are things that just don’t show up when you practice against your own defense because they play their own style or maybe you don’t get you don’t catch the right defense in preeason. And so those are situations where you kind of got to stand on the table for a play and say we probably just need to keep working this and we need to try to find the right situation to run it a game and see what it looks like. Tony Tommy Styles cowboys.com when you watch the Giants Dexter Lawrence in the middle and then Carter Burns Timido off the edge. What stands out about that group and how much of a challenge is it for you younger guys? Yeah, explosiveness, uh, speed, talent. Um, they’ve really got an excellent front. Obviously, uh, you know, Dexter Lawrence has been kind of a a stabilizing piece in the middle for them, uh, for such a long time and, you know, really, they all do a really nice job on first and second down, but when when third down comes around, they’re very impressive as well. And that’s, you know, a little bit unique for a guy his size that plays nose tackle. Coach Ali, DLS Cowboys, Abdul Carter, uh, they moved around a couple times against Washington. They had him in the middle as well. They might put in that weak side line back with Mike McFad’s injury. How do you kind of game plan around a guy that could be moved around a lot on the fly? I think um you know that’s maybe the only part of kind of watching the injury report or things like that that you can maybe try to get a glimpse of what you think somebody’s going to do more of or less of. But ultimately at the end of the day I think that you try to look at what is the root of the scheme that you’re playing against because generally that’s what’s going to show up the most. So, you know, really outside of that, there’s certain pictures that you continue to see on tape over and over structurally, and we just try to anticipate the structure more as much as anything else. We’ll wrap it up with P Babe Blberg 1053 the fan. Uh, Cowboys radio. When you’re the 12th pick in the draft, you’re supposed to be good. And as a coach, you’re always you’re never satisfied. But for the first game out, Tyler Booker, there were times and he just mauled people inside. And did that get you excited of what where this can go with him? Sure. Yeah. I uh I’m always excited to watch him play. Um and I think I said it last week and and it it holds true in my mind is like that guy the reason that he was drafted where he was wasn’t just because of physical talent. Like uh guards get drafted that high because of their mentality and the type of uh competitors that they are. And so those are the things that you get the most excited about with Tyler Booker is just knowing that, you know, guys are going to get beat. It’s the NFL. They’re going to have a bad rep here or a bad rep there or sometimes a bad game. But um trusting somebody that you know the way that they’re going to respond to those things and the way that they’re going to compete when those things happen. Those are the things that make you feel really good as a coach because, you know, you can trust the level of uh com the competitive spirit that you’re going to get from a guy, the competitive stamina that you’re going to get from a

Offensive Coordinator Klayton Adams met with the media to discuss what he saw from the offense in week one, the emphasis of growing on the good while eliminating mistakes, what the Giants do well and more.

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