The Los Angeles Rams became so synonymous with 13 personnel in 2025 that using three tight ends practically became called “the Sean McVay style”, but in Week 1 the copycat league beat the Rams at their own game. The Rams ran 13 personnel on 36.8% of their plays against the 49ers last week, which is higher than their league-leading rate in 2025, but not the highest rate of Week 1, as the Buffalo Bills called for the formation on 40.4% of their offensive plays.
And the Bills were much more successful
than the Rams, winning 36-31. In fact, teams that ran 13 personnel on at least 15% of their plays went 6-1 in Week 1; the single loss belonged to Sean McVay.
The Rams ran 13 personnel (three tight ends, one running back) on 30.8% of their plays in 2025, which was more than double the second-place rate of 13.1% of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and L.A. led the league in scoring at 30.5 points per game. The league-average was only 5.3%, putting the Rams at a rate six-times higher than a normal NFL offense.
We could easily predict that the NFL would copy the Rams, and that was obviously the case in Week 1, nearly doubling the league average from Week 1 of 2025.
What nobody predicted was that the Rams would be the only team in the league that failed to score 10 points in Week 1. Or the Matthew Stafford, his supporting cast, and McVay would all look so off of their games in losing 27-7 to the 49ers. This was the opposite of how L.A. looked in a 13 personnel-heavy offense in 2025, as detailed in this recent explainer video by Michael MacKlevie.
Other 13 personnel teams
Here’s how the other teams performed in Week 1:
- Bills (40.4%) Beat Texans 36-31
- Rams (36.8%) Lost to 49ers 27-7
- Jags (17.9%) Beat Browns 34-10
- Jets (17.5%) Beat Titans 23-10
- Bears (15.7%) Beat Panthers 59-37
- Ravens (15.6%) Beat Colts 41-23
- Cards (15.3%) Beat Chargers 26-14
With the exception of the Rams, every offense beat the pants off of their opponent in Week 1, even including Mike LaFleur’s Cardinals, just a year after leaving McVay’s 13 personnel scheme and taking it to Arizona. The Cardinals even have Hunter Long, a tight end who was on the Rams a couple of years ago.
Many of these teams also have first-round tight ends: Dalton Kincaid, Kenyon Sadiq, and Colston Loveland, plus Trey McBride, a second-round tight end who is perhaps the best in the NFL now.
The Rams have a lot of tight ends, but do they have a single one who is a top-tier receiving/blocking package at the position as of now?
We also know that 13 personnel means leaving only one receiver on the field, suggesting you the offense might be sort of a “one-receiver” type offense: Puka Nacua, D.J. Moore, Parker Washington, Garrett Wilson, Zay Flowers, Michael Wilson. We may not see the Bengals run 13 personnel, for example.
We should not expect Week 1 to deter McVay from using a heavy rate of 13 personnel, nor would these results from the other teams suggest that the rest of the NFL won’t consider increasing their rate of 13 in Week 1 — 59 points! 41 points! — but to what degree will the Rams adjust?
They might have to copy the copycats.
