Rams usage of 12 personnel has helped turn them into a complete offense

Sean McVay’s commitment to 12 personnel has helped turn Rams offense into complete unit

One of the larger criticism of the Los Angeles Rams offense throughout the Sean McVay era has been the lack of variance in personnel usage. Ever since McVay joined the Rams, the offense has been primarily an 11 personnel team.

In 2017, the Rams ran 11 personnel on 83 percent of their offensive snaps. That has only increased since then as the Rams were in 11 personnel 93 percent of the time in 2023. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Remaining in 11 personnel has allowed McVay to keep three wide receivers on the field consistently. If the wide receiver can be an effective blocker and more of a receiving threat than the second tight end, why should he be taken off the field?

With how successful the Rams wide receivers have blocked, that’s been the exact thought process. The Rams wide receivers block and it is almost becomes 11.5 personnel. McVay has been able to take advantage of the blocking ability of Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp by leaving them on the field in every situation. Defenses can’t get tendency clues based simply on the personnel as everything has looked the same.

As the Rams revamped their run game last season, it seemed like the next step was to incorporate more 12 personnel into the offense. They signed a blocking tight end in free agency in Colby Parkinson and bulked up their offensive line by signing Jonah Jackson and re-signing Kevin Dotson. It was clear that the Rams wanted to become a more physical team at the line of scrimmage.

McVay has done a good job of adapting his offense to his personnel. Still, when the Rams only ran four plays out of 12 personnel in a loss to the Chicago Bears after beating the San Francisco 49ers by featuring it, McVay was criticized.

However, the answer isn’t always running 12 personnel for the sake of running 12 personnel. There needs to be a why to it. If a certain schematic idea is being run, there needs to be a reason for it. In the case against the Bears, running 12 personnel would have meant them matching in base. At the time, the Bears had the top-ranked defense in base personnel.

Since the bye week, the Rams have utilized more 12 personnel in the offense, especially against the Vikings and Seahawks. Again, however, there is a reason for it. Doing so allows them to run more zone concepts from under center. The Rams have the 10th-most zone runs from under center this season out of 12 personnel according to Fantasy Points Data. Comparatively, they have the most man/gap scheme runs in 11 personnel when Stafford is under center.

For the first time in the McVay era, there has been more consistent variety. There is a benefit to everything looking the same. At the same time, having that change up that defenses also have to prepare for is a good thing.

What’s more impressive is how McVay has not only used 12 personnel at a much higher clip, but stuck with it when it wasn’t necessarily working. That was the case last week when Kyren Williams was averaging just 3.8 yards per carry. However, 12 of Williams’ 22 attempts came out of 12 personnel and it paid off at the end which I’ll get to later.

This has been the case for much of the season, specifically in the run game. This season, the Rams have averaged -0.12 EPA/per rush per SumerSports. That ranks 24th in the NFL. However, in 11 personnel, the Rams are averaging -0.05 EPA per rush. While still not great, they are over two-times more efficient running the ball out of 11 personnel than 12 personnel.

That’s not to say that the tight ends haven’t been able to block in 12 personnel. With that said, they are inconsistent. Davis Allen is in year two and still developing that phase of his game. Hunter Long has been the best blocking tight end of the group.

Despite the lack of success in the run game, the Rams have actually be quite efficient throwing the ball out of 12 personnel. Again, most of the Rams’ runs out of 12 personnel are zone-based. Because of this, McVay is able to get back to his roots a little bit and run play action off of that. Most of the Rams’ play action still comes out of 11 personnel, but last week’s game-winner in overtime was an example of the Rams running play-action off of that wide zone look out of 12 personnel.

McVay is able to get to the play to Robinson because he committed to an inefficient run game. That’s not something that couldn’t always be said about him in the past. This season, Matthew Stafford has 23 passes out of 12 personnel. Out of those 23 attempts, 17 of them have been play action. Stafford is 15 of 23 on these attempts and 12 of 17 out of play-action.

The numbers back up this level of efficiency. Per SumerSports, the Rams are averaging 0.18 EPA per pass out of 12 personnel. This only ranks 16th in the NFL, but is much more efficient than how they’ve thrown out of 11 personnel. Out of 11 personnel, the Rams are averaging -0.03 EPA per pass.

The Rams will likely always be primarily an 11 personnel team with Sean McVay at the helm. However, almost two-thirds of the NFL operate primarily out of 11 personnel. The Rams may be at the upper-end of that at 81.8 percent which is the second-highest rate, but that’s almost over a 10 percent drop from 2023.

Using 12 personnel more has given the Rams offense another twist. It’s not their fastball, but their sinker. The Rams don’t have a lot of explosive options in the offense. The usage of 12 personnel helps make up for that lack of explosiveness and as seen in the Vikings game, can help them cause deception.

As the Rams get healthier in the tight end room with Tyler Higbee hopefully returning at some point as well as on the offensive line, McVay can see out the vision that he had for the offense this season. The marriage of the run and pass are coming together and a key to that has been the usage of 12 personnel.