Rams’ offense is as balanced as ever thanks to a 13-personnel revolution

Nate Atkins

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6881140/2025/12/11/rams-offensive-balance-13-personnel/?source=emp_shared_article

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. — The Los Angeles Rams lined up at the 3-yard line with the end zone in sight. From under center, Matthew Stafford looked across at an Arizona Cardinals defense still in nickel personnel. He eyed the tight ends on both sides of his line. And he knew what was coming next.

“They run small people,” Stafford said, “and we run 13 (personnel).”

Blake Corum took the inside handoff behind Davis Allen as an offset fullback and followed him nearly untouched into the end zone.

The Rams rolled to a 45-17 win over the Cardinals, led by an explosive offensive performance. In addition to racking up 530 yards, they scored three rushing touchdowns and three passing touchdowns in the same game for the first time since 2001.

However, Sunday’s formula was different in flavor from those “Greatest Show on Turf” days. Led by Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner, those Rams teams found balance by running Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk behind Hall of Famer Orlando Pace, with defenses stretched on the perimeter to guard Hall of Famer Isaac Bruce and Hall of Fame semifinalist Torry Holt.

This season’s Rams have their own fearsome perimeter duo in Davante Adams, who leads the league in receiving touchdowns, and Puka Nacua, who ranks second in the league in receiving yards. But the balance has come through the less heralded members of the offense.

The Rams ran 40 of their 70 plays on Sunday with three tight ends on the field. It’s not only their most in a game this season or in the Sean McVay era, but it’s also the most plays any team has run in that personnel grouping since the NFL’s Next Gen Stats began charting back in 2016.

The Rams are now 5-0 in games in which they’ve run 13 personnel for at least 10 snaps.

“When you’re playing with tight ends who can see the game through the same lens, it’s helpful when those last-minute, last-second moves before the snap happen,” tight end Colby Parkinson said.

This is an evolution that is part intentional and part circumstantial.

After years of living almost exclusively in 11 personnel with one tight end and three wide receivers to lighten opposing defenses, McVay and offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur wanted to sprinkle in some two-tight end sets as a way to expand an under-center, play-action approach that could shift more of Stafford’s responsibilities from his arm to his mind now that he’s 37 and managing a degenerative back issue.

For the first six games, an extra tight end was merely their appetizer to the main entree.

Then Nacua sprained his ankle against the Baltimore Ravens, and the offense stalled in the fourth quarter. A week of practice with few distractions while staying in Baltimore ahead of an overseas trip to London offered time to experiment for McVay, who coached tight ends with Washington from 2011 to 2013.

On the first drive against the Jacksonville Jaguars the following week, wide receiver Tutu Atwell pulled his hamstring. So the Rams went to a new three-tight-end package as an emergency valve to bridge them to the bye week. And then a breakout ensued.

Los Angeles scored four red zone touchdowns out of 13 personnel to beat the Jaguars 35-7. The tight ends combined for eight catches for 101 yards and a touchdown. However, the real emergence came through the one healthy starting wide receiver, Adams, who scored three touchdowns.

After a bye week of more self-scouting and with Atwell’s trip to injured reserve, the Rams decided to try more 13-personnel sets, particularly when they reached the red zone and the space tightened on the deeper perimeter routes they could run. Adams often remained the solo receiver with three tight ends on the field, and he kept scoring touchdowns, with at least one in six straight games.

All of a sudden, the three-time All-Pro receiver the Rams signed as a replacement for Cooper Kupp has gone from a shaky start with a new quarterback to the NFL’s leader in touchdown receptions with 14.

Defenses naturally adjusted to the touchdown binge Stafford and Adams have found. They’re always trying to keep an eye on Nacua, who got healthy from the ankle injury. So, as defenses deployed more dime and nickel looks, the Rams leaned into the 65-35 split they’ve always wanted in the backfield with Kyren Williams and Corum.

Since Week 9, the Rams’ run game ranks first in the NFL in expected points added, success rate, early-down success rate and first-down rate, according to data collected by Rams.com. The past two weeks, Williams and Corum have combined for 365 yards on 8.1 yards per rush and five touchdowns.

It’s the kind of run game Stafford has rarely gotten to work with in his career after going four calendar years in Detroit without a single 100-yard rusher.

“When he has that run game for him to have a breath before he throws it, it just opens up so much for him,” right guard Kevin Dotson said.

And when a 17-year quarterback is the one making pre-snap decisions on downs where a run or a pass is just as likely, he gets to be the one catching the defense by surprise rather than the reverse. That’s often how the no-look highlights come. And it’s a key reason why he has a league-high 35 touchdown passes this season with just four interceptions.

“He sees the game like no one I’ve played with before,” Parkinson said.

Any adjustment in approach and identity comes with a cost, and the Rams have felt that with Atwell. After signing a one-year, $10 million deal to return to Los Angeles, a player with 8.7 career yards per target didn’t have a clear role after he got healthy. The need for cleaner special teams led to different priorities on the game-day roster, and the Rams let three games go by before risking losing Atwell for the season.

But they’re making room for him now, as McVay said that Atwell will be activated ahead of Sunday’s home game against the Detroit Lions.

The benefits of the 13-personnel movement have outweighed the cost. One advantage is the runway it’s created for fill-in right tackle Warren McClendon Jr., who excels in pass protection but needs refining as a run blocker. Now, he’s insulated by a tight end to his right on a majority of plays.

Another has been finding a role for Terrance Ferguson. The team’s top draft pick in April saw just eight snaps in the first five games due to blocking concerns. It’s a progression that can often take a rookie tight end an entire year to build the strength needed for the pro game. That’s all a lesser concern when he’s one of three tight ends on the field as opposed to the lead option.

With 198 snaps over the past eight games, Ferguson has learned firsthand the nuances of the game through what Stafford, McVay and LaFleur are calling. That experience has grown with the loss of Tyler Higbee, and Ferguson saw a season-high 45 snaps in Sunday’s win.

“Thirteen personnel causes a lot of problems for (the defense). A lot of base defenses are a lot simpler, so they can’t do as many things out of it because nickel is everyone’s 11-personnel set,” Ferguson said. “It makes it easier on us. It’s the mismatches 13 personnel creates with the big bodies blocking safeties, and if you want to put big guys out there, we can run routes as well.”

The other benefit has been load management.

Adams has dealt with two hamstring injuries in his 12th season. When one popped up early in the game against the Carolina Panthers, the Rams leaned more into the run game and tight ends.

Nacua’s season was off to an explosive start as a high-volume option, only for injuries to his head and ankle to force questions of how to make his physical yards-after-catch style sustainable. Since he returned, his snap count has fallen to below 75 percent in all but one game. Now, he’s more of a drive starter and third-down option than the man carrying each possession.

“I think it’s helped to give us an identity,” McVay said of the 13-personnel sets. “It’s really done a lot of the things that I talked about relative to taking advantage of all our players. But it’s also lessening the workload that allows some of the skill players, particularly the wideouts, to be fresher in some known pass situations. …

“I do think the multiple personnels and the more multiple we can be while taking advantage of our players, and then how does that ultimately give us matchup and tactical advantages both from a personnel and a schematic standpoint against the upcoming opponent, are all the factors. It’s an organic evolution based on some things that ended up happening.”

Defenses will adjust to what a team shows on film, and the tests are coming in different ways. The Lions live almost exclusively in base defense to keep two of their best defenders on the field together, linebackers Jack Campbell and Alex Anzalone. Meanwhile, the Seattle Seahawks often live in nickel and dime personnel to confuse quarterbacks behind a potent pass rush, and they can afford to do so with a run defense that has not allowed a 100-yard rusher all season.

With two games in five days that could decide a loaded NFC West race, the Rams have to lean into their most multiple and personnel-diverse ways to keep their best players at peak form.

In a season that was supposed to be all about Stafford, Adams, Nacua and Williams, the 13-personnel revolution has become the glue.

How McVay modernized the Greatest Show on Turf | Kurt’s QB Insider

Los Angeles Rams PR@TheLARamsPR
According to @PFF, Puka Nacua ranks 1st in offensive grade (94.6) and receiving grade (94.6) among all skill position players in the NFL.

Nacua is also T-1st in receptions (93), 2nd in Rec Yds (1,186), 7th in yards after catch (432) and 11th in Rec TDs (6), according to TruMedia.

Zooey wrote:

Rams: Los Angeles’ only real weakness right now is its kicking game. The team is 13 of 18 on field goals this year and had a disastrous finish in Philadelphia earlier this season, when Joshua Karty had two field goals blocked in the fourth quarter — including one for the win.

Harrison Mevis is kicking now, but the Rams have attempted just four field goals over their last seven games, and none in pressure situations. If anything is going to take down the Super Bowl favorites, it’s probably the kicking game. And if any team understands how important postseason kicking is, it’s them.

I don’t agree that the kicking game is a problem. They not only replaced Karty, they replaced their long snapper, and if you look at inactives lists, you see that they shuffled the blockers on the FG/XP kicking unit.

The fact that they have not kicked that many FGs is not because they’re avoiding kicks. Bizarrely, the article seems to hint at that. Naw they have not been kicking FGs because the offense is on such a tear right now. They are first in the league in points scored in the first quarter. They are 3rd in this very important stat: NFL Team Red Zone Scoring Percentage (TD only)

They have not needed to kick FGs.

That does not mean the kicker is a problem, it means we don’t really know where he stands. Mevis does, however, have a good history.

Here’s the wiki on him:

College career
As a sophomore, Mevis emerged as one of the premier place kickers in the nation, going 23/25 (93%) on field goal attempts. He also was a perfect 3/3 on field goals longer than 50 yards with a long of 56 yards. … Following his sophomore season, Mevis was named a first team All-American. On September 16, 2023, during the closing seconds of a game against 15th–ranked Kansas State, Mevis kicked a 61-yard field goal to win the game 30–27 for Missouri, breaking the record for the longest field goal in SEC history. In his Senior Night game, he hit a 30-yard game winning field goal vs the Florida Gators to win 33–31.

Birmingham Stallions
On December 6, 2024, Mevis signed with the Birmingham Stallions of the United Football League (UFL). In week 7, Mevis went 3-for-3 on field goal attempts with a long of 52 yards and was named the UFL special teams player of the week

That’s not “having done it for the Rams yet,” but it is very solid potential. Those are real accomplishments.

I think he got overlooked by teams because he does not have a “traditional kicker’s build” (ie. lean) and therefore strikes some coaching types as too “atypical.” He looks like a fatty, and NFL coaches don’t “go there.” (Well unless you’re an O-lineman.)

Not only that but on one of his kicks, I forget which one, he did face a rusher who had beaten the blocking, and it did not faze him one bit. He didn’t “hurry up” but stayed in focus and hit his typical hard, high, right-up-the-middle kick.

I think with Karty there were problems with the blocking and the long snapper, and it undermined him. I think Mevis has much tougher composure and has very little in the way of “nerves.” Plus they fixed the blocking issues anyway.

That’s what I have seen so far.

Plus! Ironically, Seattle lost to the Rams because they missed a last second clutch FG.

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