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.

1. Re-invest in the running back

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.

• Since taking over the starting job in Pittsburgh (2018-2020) = average 719 yards/season
• His first two years in Arizona (2021-2022) = average 767 yards/season
• His last two years in Arizona (2023-2024) = average 1,067 yards/season

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…

• Games played: Conner = 16, Dowdle = 16
• Rushing attempts: Conner = 236, Dowdle = 235
• Yards per carry: Conner = 4.6, Dowdle = 4.6

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.

2. Getting linemen into space

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 from Adams, highlighting several key elements of his blocking schemes.

The Cardinals have been one of the top gap-blocking teams in the league these past two years, using at least one pulling offensive lineman on just under two-thirds of their run plays this past year. In 2024, they found great success running counter, finishing second in the NFL in counter-run plays but showing a wide variation of formations they ran it from.

Adams will rely heavily on the athleticism of his offensive linemen. It wouldn’t surprise us if Tyler Smith ends up the top left guard in the league under Adams’ watch. Smith moves in space very well and could open up his own house of pancakes with the number of running starts he’ll be getting.

The stage is set for many of the team’s young linemen to take a step forward. Cooper Beebe had a great rookie season and should be even better in year two. And while many are sour on Tyler Guyton, the athleticism is there and it will be interesting to see what he looks like with Adams.

And even Terence Steele, the guy most believe will be a cap casualty this offseason, should flourish in this new system. Before his injury, Steele flashed some great moving run-blocking chops and could be in store for a career season this year.

3. Heavy tight end personnel

The Cowboys are no strangers to using multiple tight ends in the past, but last season was a different story as they relied heavily on three wide receiver sets. They ran 775 plays last year using three wide receivers, ranking inside the top 10 in 11-personnel usage (one RB, one TE, and three WRs).

Conversely, they ranked outside the top 20 in heavy tight end personal, running just 119 plays with two tight ends, and only 13 plays with three tight ends. They did use a fullback quite a bit, running 90 plays using 21 personnel (two RBs, one TE), which ranked seventh most last season. Mike McCarthy loved him some Hunter Luepke.

Expect a change with the addition of Adams running the offense. He absolutely loves tight ends. There were 13 players for Arizona last year who had at least 400 offensive snaps, and three of them were tight ends. We all know about the pass-catching Trey McBride, but Adams also employed quite a bit of Tip Reiman (third-round pick last year) and Elijah Higgins (sixth-round pick in 2023). Here are last year’s personnel tendency rates for both teams (data courtesy of sumersports.com)

What this means for the Cowboys is that their pass-catching tight end Jake Ferguson will be counted on to hit his blocks. Ferguson is a middling blocker, but it will be a point of emphasis under Adams’ tutelage. The good news for Dallas is that despite the criticism thrown at Luke Schoonmaker (mostly because of where he was drafted), the Cowboys have a very good blocking TE2. He should be a prized asset for the team’s new offensive coordinator.

Adams will need to figure out what he wants to do with Luepke as he could transition to more of a tight end role or continue to utilize him as a fullback. The Cowboys might also rely on some other undrafted guys like Brevyn Spann-Ford or John Stephens Jr. (if he can get healthy), or possibly go back to the well to find another strong blocking tight end in the draft. They have some options, but expect the Cowboys to rely on tight ends a lot more this upcoming season.

Conclusion

It’s impressive what Arizona has been able to do when running the ball. During Adams’ two years with the team, only five other teams have finished with a higher EPA per play than the Cardinals, and all five are teams whose rushing game we envy.

The teams above the Cardinals either have the league’s top backs, a duo of backs, an elite offensive line, or a Shanahan offense that can run the ball with anyone. And in some cases, more than one of those things.

The Cardinals had none of those things. They had a solid running back in Conner and no standout players along the offensive line. It was a total group effort. The Cowboys have a young promising offensive line and should take steps to upgrade their running back room. They also have some good starting pieces at tight end.

With a new head coach whose strength has been the running game and a sharp former offensive line coach taking over as offensive coordinator, things look promising for the Cowboys rushing attack in 2025.