The Cowboys raised some eyebrows around the NFL this weekend when they managed to hire one of the best position coaches in the college game, Oregon receivers coach Junior Adams.
As ESPN’s Todd Archer reported on Sunday, “The Cowboys are expected to sign Oregon co-offensive coordinator/WRs coach Junior Adams as their new WRs coach, according to a source. Second college coach to join staff with K-State’s Conor Riley coming on board as OL coach.”
What’s especially interesting about Adams is not just his reputation as a position coach. It’s also his past history, which included working his way up around different school in the Northwest, including Eastern Washington, Boise State, Western Kentucky, and Washington before spending the last three years at Oregon, as the wide receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator.
It was his time at Eastern Washington where Adams coached a player who could now have an impact on the Cowboys in 2025–a barely recruited native of Yakima, Washington named Cooper Kupp.
Junior Adams & Cooper Kupp Have History
In his time at Eastern Washington, Kupp broke just about ever FCS record on the books, totaling 428 catches for 6,464 yards in four years, and 73 touchdowns. All were records. Adams was his coach for his first two years at Eastern Washington.
Kupp then went on to a stellar NFL career, which peaked with his “triple crown” season in 2021, when he had 1,947 yards on 145 catches and 16 touchdowns. He has been a star in all eight seasons of his NFL career, all of which were spent with the Rams.
But Kupp has struggled with injuries in his last three seasons, playing just 33 out of 51 games. It’s worth nothing, they were 8-4 when he played this year, and 2-3 when he did not. Still, the Rams have decided to move on from Kupp, and he announced last week that the Rams were seeking to trade him.
That’s where the Cowboys could get involved. They badly need a No. 2 receiver to go alongside CeeDee Lamb, and Kupp–if healthy–could thrive in that role.
Cowboys Would Need Rams to Take Back $$$
Ultimately, it will be the Cowboys and Rams front offices that make the decision on what to do with Kupp–the Rams are going to find the best package they can for him, and Dallas will determine whether it can fit his playing style and his salary into the roster.
But Kupp is a big fan of Junior Adams, which is why the hiring was so interesting, at a time when Kupp can probably be had no the cheap and could prove to be a successful reclamation project.
“As hard as he can be on you, I think he sees more in people than they see in themselves a lot of the time,” Kupp once told the Seattle Times. “I think he sees the best in people as well, and he wants to bring that out. He definitely pushed me and really forced me to accept the fact that I could be greater than what my own thoughts were.
“I really credit a lot of my mindset and the way that I’ve gone about my whole career – the mindset I’ve taken into my training, into my preparation – I credit a lot of that to Coach Adams.”
Kupp is on a three-year, $80 million contract with the Rams, and that figures to be a sticking point going forward. The Cowboys, certainly, won’t pay him the $20 million he is due in 2025—they can’t fit that into their salary cap. If he is to be traded, he would either need to renegotiate his deal or have the Rams eat a portion of his payout.
