The Ravens, Chiefs, Lions, and 49ers all get more explosive plays out of heavy personnel than you might think, and here’s how they do it.
We tend to think of the modern NFL passing game as heavily dependent on multi-receiver sets, spread out to foil opposing defenses. But more and more, modern offensive coordinators are finding ways to use heavier personnel and some old-school ideas to score points.
All four of the remaining teams in the playoff picture — the Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs, Detroit Lions, and San Francisco 49ers — have patented ways to break defenses in half with more tight ends, fullbacks, and extra offensive linemen than you might imagine.
You’ll see a lot of these concepts in Sunday’s conference championship games, and here they are. In case you’re not familiar with how numbers and personnel packages, here’s how that works.
- 10 Personnel = 1 RB, 0 TE, 4 WRs
- 11 Personnel = 1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WRs
- 12 Personnel = 1 RB, 2 TEs, 2 WRs
- 13 Personnel = 1 RB, 3 TEs, 1 WR
- 21 Personnel = 2 RBs, 1 TE, 2 WRs
- 22 Personnel = 2 RBs, 2 TEs, 1 WR
In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys talked a lot about how all four teams will use their own ideas to set themselves up for possible Super Bowl berths.
You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os,” previewing both conference championship games in detail, right here:
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You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…
…and on Apple Podcasts.
