Rams milking condensed formations

What NFL’s Next Gen Stats says about Rams’ greatest advantage against Bills

A condensed or a compressed formation is as straightforward as it sounds and the L.A. Rams run it more often than any other team in the NFL this season. Their next opponent, the Buffalo Bills, allows the highest completion percentage (75%) to teams out of condensed formations, according to Next Gen Stats.

Could Sean McVay call 100% of his plays out of a condensed formation this weekend and can the Bills stop it?

Condensed ‘stick concept’ example:

Last season, the San Francisco 49ers led the league in condensed formations (bunch sets and receivers getting really cozy with the offensive line by moving closer to them) and Kyle Shanahan rode that strategy all the way to the Super Bowl.

This season, the Rams are running condensed formations on 61% of their snaps, the most in the NFL. Next Gen Stats notes that Matthew Stafford’s completion percentage (71%) and success rate (53%) are top-10 marks out of condensed formations.

Three advantages to a condensed formations, as provided by The Spread Offense YouTube channel:

• Creates a leverage advantage
• Simplifies the defense
• Dictate the strength

Here is Spread Offense’s explanation of those advantages, using McVay’s Rams as the example team because why wouldn’t you?

The YouTube channel “Wide Zone Warriors” also provided some McVay-related examples like this:

“PAIR” (TE/WING) condensed formation

Which you can watch the full video explaining here:

This may look familiar to Rams fans.

North RT Clamp “SNUG”

The Bills are 10-2 and competing for the coveted number one seed in the AFC and they have the number 2 scoring offense and number 6 scoring defense in the NFL this season.

But Buffalo is also 30th in yards per carry allowed (4.9) and this could be an opportunity for Kyren Williams and Blake Corum to lead the way in the first half of the game. If that works, Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp could find themselves very open out of bunched sets in the second half.

The Rams need this win to get over .500 and keep strong playoff hopes alive. Milking condensed formations and running successfully out of it could be the key.