FRISCO, Texas -- Their first in-person introduction at AT&T Stadium on Dec. 4, 2022, was brief. Maybe a handful of minutes.
At the time, Brian Schottenheimer was a consultant with the Dallas Cowboys and Klayton Adams was a tight ends coach with the Indianapolis Colts.
Schottenheimer liked to know up-and-coming assistants, and having worked for the Colts in 2016 and 2017, he was friends with general manager Chris Ballard and director of college scouting Matt Terpening, who touted Adams. So did former Colts tight end Jack Doyle, whom Schottenheimer coached.
"We were in the middle of kind of a weird season in Indy that year. Coach [Frank] Reich had gotten fired," Adams said of the initial meeting, "so I had some other stuff on my mind ... But we stayed in touch after that."
Three years and one month later, when Schottenheimer became the Cowboys' head coach in January, he hired Adams, who spent the 2023 and '24 seasons as the Arizona Cardinals line coach, to be his offensive coordinator.
Through five games, the partnership between Schottenheimer and Adams has produced the best offense in the NFL based on yards per game (406.6) and the fourth best in terms of points (30.2).
Adams, 42, has autonomy over the running game, although Schottenheimer is the playcaller. So far, the Cowboys have the NFL's eighth-best rush offense (134.4 yards per game). Javonte Williams is on pace for 1,519 yards. They have seven rushing touchdowns, one more than they had all of last season.
Last year, the Cowboys had the 27th-ranked rush offense. This year, they still found success, even when injuries forced them to use four replacement starters on the offensive line last week against the New York Jets.
After beating the Jets, Dak Prescott was asked where Adams has helped the most.
"Everywhere," the quarterback said. "I mean it would be hard to just say one area and damn sure disrespectful to just say one area. That's a guy that loves football, loves the locker room, loves his players, loves coaching, loves inspiring.
"Klayton brings a sense of intensity and focus and grit to our offense that you really can't quantify it, I guess."
While the statistics say one thing, Adams is not satisfied.
"When you take the litmus test and you just watch it, I just think there's a lot of improvement that needs to be made for us to be operating on the level that we want to be operating on," Adams said. "I think the guys are playing hard for sure.
"I just think there's a lot of intricacies of things that you watch and you go, 'Gosh, that block, we need to figure that one out,' or, 'Our path is off here.' It's a constantly evolving thing ... I think we have a long way to go."
Adams has coached running backs, tight ends and offensive linemen in his career, but this is his first time breaking away from those islands and needing to see a bigger picture. On game days, he has had to get used to sitting in the coaches' booth and not having direct contact with the players on the sidelines.
Schottenheimer admits Adams has a "tough job," being the coordinator for a head coach who calls plays.
"I've lived it with Mike [McCarthy], it can be hard," Schottenheimer said of the previous Cowboys head coach. "Because there's things that you think and you believe and you're kind of told, 'No.' Sometimes we sit there and you're like, 'No, we're not doing that.' But he is so easy to work with, and God he loves it. He loves coaching O-line. He's in there every chance he gets.
"But again, really, the day-to-day stuff, it's the fundamentals. It's what they do in the classroom, not just teaching scheme, but the fundamentals."
For right tackle Terence Steele, Adams is the third different voice in the offensive line room since coming to the Cowboys in 2020, from Joe Philbin to Mike Solari to Adams.
"I think he's a master in the run game, to be honest with you," Steele said. "He's always putting us in good positions to have good leverage, good angles in the run game."
Adams is not married to one run philosophy. He says he wants to do "everything," from gap runs to inside and outside zone.
"Going back to my playing days in my formative years at Boise State and kind of learning some of this stuff, we just did everything," said Adams, who was a center. "Whatever fit best that week, that's what you tried to do. To me, that's how I look at the game.
"There's going to be opportunities based on the style of front and the coverages that you're seeing. And whoever the elite players [are], you need to figure out ways to block or stay away from. Can you do enough of that to be successful? Also, get your players to understand those things and also, do enough of what they do well."
On Mondays and Tuesdays, Schottenheimer and Adams put the pieces together then go to the rest of the staff "to shoot holes in it," Schottenheimer said. The run calls have to marry the pass calls to keep the defense off balance.
Through time, Schottenheimer and Adams have to see things the same way.
"Just like any relationship, I think you have to have positive and negative experiences and kind of mold your opinion based on those things," Adams said. "There's been things that have happened at practice that I said 'Hey, you got to trust me here,' because it's not a good practice play. Then, we get into a game and maybe it does good. Maybe I'll make that same comment, and it goes and just gets blown up in the game.
"So it's my job to sell the things that I really believe in, and when there's things that he doesn't like, we need to move on because ultimately he needs to feel confident."