Klayton Adams - Head Coach, cowboys Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-09-10 | Full transcript (primary source).
Klayton Adams addressed the media during a press conference for the Cowboys on September 10, 2026, as the team prepares for the upcoming NFL season. The discussion focused on the team's offseason evaluations and the competitive dynamics within the roster as they approach their first game.
Transcript
Adams: Well, I guess we'll just have to wait till Sunday night to see what that looks like. I mean, you know, do you see what's happening around the league? And then you look at yourself in the offseason and you see what did we do? Well, how do we build off of that? What did we struggle with, you know, where do we need to pivot? And so those are the thought processes that go into it and then you know, I always say this but you go into week one thinking that you're one thing and usually by week four or five, you know, you figure out the things that you're good at and maybe you're something else.
Adams: I think the way that that really anybody does because we're number one, like we're really honest with those guys about the fact that everything here is really about competition. So it's not just exclusive to the tackles. And then I think when you live in that world and you know, you're being told constantly that the best guys are gonna play, I think that brings out the best in everybody.
Adams: But could not really be more opposite those guys are total total opposites and that probably feeds into their relationship is just that they don't necessarily think about things the same way all the time or respond to things the same way all the time, but it is a pretty unique because you know, they're really not jealous of each other.
Adams: I think that that's probably something that you would think of when you get kind of two number ones on the same team is you know, who's gonna be getting more balls and be upset about it? Those guys never are that way they're fired up for each other. I think they truly want to win.
Adams: You know, I think CD probably personality-wise is I guess a little bit more like what I would expect a receiver just in terms of you know, the way that he operates day-to-day. George you just don't always know exactly what you're gonna get a little bit more unpredictable, but you know both awesome in their own ways.
Adams: Yeah, and specifically because you know Dak I think is pretty prideful about not wanting to be a guy that has a wristband. He wants to really be able to verbalize the play call and he wants to own it and he works very very hard at that and so we try to shorten the verbiage as much as you can.
Adams: Now you also get greedy because you know, I guess it's in college football now but it didn't used to be when I was coaching there is you're giving it to him directly in his headset. So sometimes you're throwing something on there that's you know, like he want to make sure that the Titan knows what he's doing here. I want to make sure that the back knows what he's doing here because there's nuance to it.
Adams: I think you know, he's gotten to that point. I'm not a hundred percent sure how many starts he has now, but you know, the discussions that we had in the offseason when we were you know, you're trying to figure out exactly what the tender is going to be with an undrafted free agent is would you be okay with this guy as your starter in this league? And I think that we definitely feel that way.
Adams: You start seeing it when you're you know, maybe midway through the first year with the guys. They start understanding what to expect in the plan and I think that you know, that helps them respond to things a little bit quicker.
Adams: So he's really a master of that stuff.
Adams: Yeah, I mean, you know, I think the way that the league is heading right now I think it feels like defenses are probably going to take a few more risks in between the 40-yard lines or in between the 30s I guess you would say just because of the way that the kickoff rules kind of affected the game.
Adams: But yeah, I mean if you're gonna see a lot of shell defense, you know that guy there's a lot of space in there. And so if you're able to you know, if you're able to kind of block man-for-man there should be opportunities for that guy to get through the front seven.
Adams: I think just owning our system and speaking our language and you know being confident that he's not kind of you know, I think when you first walk into a system I think which is the first thing you do as a professional football player as you go, oh, they call this this they call this this and so you're you're kind of translating through another system.
Adams: I think we got to get him up to speed to the point where he owns it and he knows it and he's able to play confidently, it's hard to play confidently if you're having to translate.
Adams: I mean, there's just so many of them, you know, it's there's times where you can kind of tie one guy down and say we're gonna give this guy all the attention and you anticipate going into a week when you know you got an elite pass rusher that you're gonna have a plan like that and when there's three or four of them it's difficult.
Adams: So, you know, you're gonna have to coach on game day a little bit and figure out where you know so and so is that and figure out where so and so is that and you know try to detail your plan as you go on game day.
Adams: I think you probably do it through different personnel groupings, right? And so if you're in 12 personnel there's all sorts of things that you can do in the past game and in the run game that aren't necessarily is this guy gonna be blocking or and really when you're talking about like pass protection and pass protection help where those guys are like chipping for the tackles.
Adams: We do that with all of our tight ends so it's not necessarily that you would put him in to do that just because all those guys are capable of doing that because it's not really a one-on-one block.
Adams: Yeah, I think one of the things that we talked about in the offseason with it and even last year when some of those things were happening is just knowing the situation. You know if it's if it's third and 18 and you catch the ball, you know for a plus two game at some point you're gonna probably want to get down rather than risk the football here.
Adams: Yeah, I feel like he's done a good job of when we ask him to do some of those things of having understanding of it. And you know the other part of it is is when we do move him around it just can't be the same route all the time.
Adams: I mean, I think it's good. It gets a if you if you have an it, you know I guess more of a pinpoint idea on you know we think this guy is going to get cloud coverage and you move them to this part of the progressions so that you can get you know the ball to somebody else or to a different part of the coverage faster.
Adams: You know, that's good. Obviously with a new staff we don't know as much about the way that they'll view that but again, you know early in the season you got a coach on game day.
Adams: Yeah, I mean I'm very invested in their success obviously and yeah, but it's been great. You know just it's I always think that to be great, you know, it's a little bit like having a great training partner in somebody that can hit the ball back across the net at you.
Adams: And it's been really good for us in training camp to be challenged by them and to have some days where we're walking back in going man, that wasn't very good.
Adams: And then also, you know, you have enough respect for those guys that when you do have a good day you feel a little bit better about it.
Adams: Somebody I think some of the defensive guys had asked me that and the only thing that I remember about last year was at this point like I was trying so hard to figure out what I was doing that I just wasn't really paying attention to the defense.
