Will Sean McVay look to get back to his 12 personnel roots in 2025 NFL Draft?

Why Colston Loveland is a perfect fit to replace Cooper Kupp in the Rams offense

The Los Angeles Rams offense will be undergoing some serious changes in 2025. Moving on from wide receiver Cooper Kupp was just the beginning as the offense looks to get more versatile and dynamic heading into next season. Throughout his tenure as the Rams head coach, Sean McVay has made significant tweaks to his offense every 2-3 years. Heading into next season, it seems as if McVay is once again on the path to making some serious changes.

Again, that’s nothing new. From 2017-2019, the Rams leaned into the wide zone that made the Kyle Shanahan offense stand out. When that got stopped, the Rams went to more of a spread look which led to a Super Bowl title in 2021. With defenses putting an umbrella over the top, the Rams have leaned into the gap-scheme run game. However, the offense has gotten less explosive and the lack of variety was apparent through stretches of 2024.

When taking the Rams head coach job, McVay figured that he would largely use 12 personnel offensive packages. During his first draft, the Rams used a second-round pick on tight end Gerald Everett to pair with Tyler Higbee. They even took a fullback in Sam Rodgers, signaling some intent to potentially run some of the offense out of 21 personnel.

However, it was another rookie that threw a wrench into those plans. During the 2017 offseason, Cooper Kupp flashed more than any of the other young skill players that the Rams had drafted. His ability to feel out zone coverage and his willingness to block forced the Rams to reconsider that plan.

With Kupp rising to the scene, it didn’t make sense for the Rams to take him, Robert Woods, and Sammy Watkins, who later became Brandin Cooks, off of the field. With Woods and Kupp’s willingness to block, it allowed the Rams to run 11 personnel, or as some liked to call it, 11.5 personnel. The Rams receivers were motivated to block, able to play fast, and well conditioned enough to stay on the field the majority of the game.

It was the perfect storm and allowed the Rams to operate their turbo package out of 11 personnel. McVay adapted on the fly and it paid off. That 11 personnel has become the identity of the McVay offense with the Rams. No team has operated in that personnel grouping more since McVay took over in 2017.

Heading into 2025, the Rams offense is getting a new look and getting revamped after struggling at times last season. They went through stretches of inconsistency and over the final five games (excluding Week 18), they were just 19th in success rate. The offense also had a tough stretch in the first half of the season as well. It’s certainly worth mentioning the injuries and some tough conditions. Still, for stretches of games, the Rams offense lacked overall consistency.

With no Kupp, the Rams offense is bound to look a little different. However, it’s not just that the Rams won’t have Kupp, but they didn’t want Kupp. Les Snead called Kupp returning the least likely scenario and when the Rams wide receiver approached McVay to ask if there was anything he could do, McVay said no.

It seems very clear that McVay has a vision of what he wants the Rams offense to look like. Given that the offense had two of its most efficient games last year running primarily out of 12 personnel, it wouldn’t be surprising if McVay wants to lean more into that.

As I wrote last November following the win against the Seahawks,

“The Rams have actually been 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.”

Two games in which the Rams especially leaned into 12 personnel was against the Minnesota Vikings. Against the Vikings, Kyren Williams had 18 zone-based runs for 55 yards. That’s nothing special as it only had a 27.8 percent success rate. At the same time, it allowed the Rams to run play action off of that. In both games against the Vikings, Matthew Stafford was 11-for-14 for 144 yards with a passer rating of 109.5 on play action out of 12 personnel.

In recent years the Rams head coach has used 12 personnel in specific spots rather than make it an identity of the offense. At the end of the day, the Rams are always going to be an 11 personnel based team under McVay. That’s how the modern NFL operates. The Las Vegas Raiders led the NFL in 12 personnel usage at 35 percent. However, can the Rams get from 13 percent to 24 percent?

This isn’t an offense that has three wide receivers that need to be on the field together at the same time. The Rams have Puka Nacua and Davonte Adams, but behind them is Tutu Atwell. Atwell was paid $10 million fully guaranteed for 2025, but that’s not a caliber of contract that requires him to be on the field for 90 percent of the offensive snaps in every game.

Flashing back to 2017, the Rams have the ability to run an offense with Puka Nacua and and Davonte Adams on the outside with Tyler Higbee as the in-line tight end and another player to be named later as the big slot. This would be very similar to what McVay initially wanted to do with Robert Woods, Sammy Watkins, Tyler Higbee, and Gerald Everett. Nacua has been compared to Woods in the Rams offense while Adams is that true “x” like Watkins was on the outside.

Over the past two seasons, McVay has seemingly wanted to draft a receiving tight end that can act as a bit of a big slot. In 2023, the Rams attempted to trade into the end of the first round to select Utah tight end Dalton Kincaid. Last year, they tried very hard to trade up for tight end Brock Bowers. While the Rams settled for Davis Allen in the fifth-round of the 2023 draft, it’s clear that McVay still wants a legitimate receiving threat at tight end.

McVay has coveted a specific type of player at tight end over the last two drafts, but just come up short. With the Rams needing to push hard for a Super Bowl title over the next two years, it’s unlikely that McVay gets denied for a third time. A player that fits that same profile of player is Michigan tight end Colston Loveland. If he is available at 26 or close to it, it would not be surprising if the Rams made a move to draft him or simply take him outright.

Loveland may not be the same level of prospect, but he has a similar play-style as Bowers from last year who McVay was very interested in. Essentially, Loveland is Cooper Kupp if Kupp were a tight end. He runs extremely nuanced routes like a wide receiver at 6’5, 245 pounds, has excellent play speed, is good at finding holes in zone coverage, and is a versatile player in an offense.

As Kyle Crabbs from The 33rd Team wrote,

“Colston Loveland projects as a mismatch flex tight end for an NFL passing offense. Teams that use hybrid 12p will be best positioned to implement him in the slot or off the ball as a motion player — where he can help change the numbers in the run game to the formational strength, be better positioned to play as a blocker from the slot and draw slot defenders or linebackers in his pass routes and use his height/weight/speed to his advantage.”

With Loveland, the Rams can throw him into that Kupp role and have a hybrid 12 personnel that McVay envisioned when he first arrived in Los Angeles. This is exactly how Michigan used him. Loveland took 43.7 percent of his snaps in the slot and 16.4 percent of his snaps as a boundary receiver. He’s not an in-line blocking tight end and shouldn’t be used that way. When lined up in the slot, he’s more than willing to block where he can use his length and wall off defenders. He can be used as a blocker in the same way that Kupp was during his time with the Rams.

This is the type of receiving tight end that the Rams have lacked in the offense and with no Kupp, there is room for it. Loveland was in the 96th percentile over the past two seasons in yards per route run and converted 7-of-7 targets on passes 20 yards or more downfield in 2023.

Loveland may be a tight end in name only as he does a lot of Cooper Kupp things over the middle of the field and is more of a weapon as a receiver. As a Kupp replacement in a revamped 12 personnel hybrid offense, Loveland would be a great fit. If McVay is looking to get back to his roots as a tight end coach and utilize more 12 personnel as he originally envisioned, a tight end of Loveland’s skillset makes a lot of sense.

While Loveland is used as the primary example here, the Rams could also find alternatives in the draft. Harold Fannin Jr. is still developing as a route-runner and lacks physicality as a blocker, but fits that same role. Mason Taylor is another player who can win at all three levels and is alignment versatile.

The Rams offense and what it looks like in 2025 will be a major topic of discussion throughout the offseason. McVay talked about wanting more versatility out of his offense in 2025 and that versatility is severely lacking at the tight end spot. Moving on from Kupp signifies a potential change to the offense and bringing in a tight end so that the offense can operate in a hybrid 12 personnel may just be the answer.