Klayton Adams Interview (The Athletic)

[Kwyn]

Clayton said one of the reasons there’s not a long history of o-line coaches becoming coordinators or head coaches is precisely *because* the tend to have a narrow focus and not pay attention to the rest of the team. He said that as a coaching subset they have us against the world mentalities and that doesn’t lend itself to broader responsibilities.

He gave an example of an o-line coach that didn’t know the name of the starting cornerbacks on his own team because oline only cares about oline.

He said it’s something he became aware of with himself and challenged himself to do more

He then said that he still has things to learn about inclusion since he joined the Cowboys.

Example he gave was that he held an odd season coaching off site and only invited offensive coaches. He said some of the defensive guys gave him a hard time and he’s recognized the importance of the team wide scope, particularly after seeing how Schottenheimer handled the entire staff.

This offense is significantly different from what we saw before

Commitment to presnap motion and play action are much different than McCarthy.

Do you remember Fed Warner calling every cowboy play at the line of scrimmage when they blew us out in 2024? Even McCarthy admitted it post game

That type of thing didn’t happen last year because Shottenheimer is a modern coach and McCarthy was still running the playbook he inherited from Paul Hackett.

Now we can run or pass to anywhere on the field from the same set. That element simply wasn’t there before.

He’s also sped Dak up a the line or scrimmage. Dropping the routine, same same, every down cadence was history. Dak didn't drop “here we go” by choice. Schottenheimer removed it to save time and pressure the defense.

The random switchup to no huddle was Schottenheimer. Mccarthy didn’t do that

Pretty much every snap with McCarthy was 26 seconds. Schottenheimer’s tempo bursts added windows of 16-18 seconds, especially after big plays. You never saw the offense hustling down field after a 30 yard play with McCarthy but it happened often with Schottenheimer

Trust me, Dak didn’t keep his favorite comforts when the coach changed.

I really think that people were so lulled into the lack of innovation and outside the box thinking over the past 15 years that they can’t be bothered to look for changes.

It’s the same fan mindset that comes from 30 years of Jerry failure. Everyone is so tired and beaten down that they can’t work up the energy to even look at changes until the team makes the NFCCG.

I get it, but I also recognize it for what it is,

 

[AsthmaField]

Really great interview. Thanks for posting it K.

It is so nice to finally really like the assistant coaches for the first time in God knows how long.