The Los Angeles Rams offense revolves around Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, Darrell Henderson Jr. and the same five offensive linemen. Robert Woods was a key cog in the offense as well before he went down with an unfortunate season-ending knee injury ahead of Week 10.
After seeing a graphic that shows the unique lineups that each team in the NFL has used on offense, it’s clear that Sean McVay isn’t a fan of making substitutions.
Los Angeles has used just 52 unique lineups on the offensive side of the ball, which is by far the fewest in the NFL. The next closest team is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with 122 unique lineups.
Boy, the Rams do not like to substitute on offense. Can't really argue with the results though pic.twitter.com/zKqZQn5f3u
— Ben Volin (@BenVolin) November 18, 2021
Additionally, the Rams have used their most common lineup on 34.46% of their plays so far. The Dallas Cowboys are in second place in that metric at 12.04%.
These numbers shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given McVay’s tendency to run 11 personnel at such a high clip. Through the first 10 weeks, the Rams run their offense out of 11 personnel at a league-high 87% of the time.
Ever since Johnny Mundt suffered a season-ending injury, Los Angeles has strayed away from 12 personnel in favor of having three wide receivers on the field at almost all times. Moving forward, we’ll likely see plenty of offensive sets that feature Henderson, Kupp, Van Jefferson, Odell Beckham Jr. and Tyler Higbee.
Injuries can be credited as part of the reason why the Rams have elected to maintain a small group of players on offense, as the team lacks depth at certain skill positions. While McVay’s offense will need to make improvements coming out of the bye week, just don’t expect many different pairings for the rest of the season.