The Las Vegas Raiders capped off week one with a 20-13 victory over the New England Patriots, there was a lot of key aspects of their week one victory but the most notable comes with their tendency’s for personnel groupings shaping how the offense could look going forward into the season.
The Raiders an 11 personnel (1 TE, 1 RB) on 51.61% of their week 1 plays which was slightly below the NFL’s average of 59.9%. The Raiders passed out of 11 personnel 59.3% of the time, above the NFL average of 51.8%.
Their second most frequented grouping evolved out of 12 personnel (1 TE, 1 RB) where the Raiders rank 35.5% of their offensive snaps, passing on 63.65% of these snaps. Both ranked significantly above the NFL’s average where teams only ran 12 personnel on just 24.7% of their snaps and passed just 41% of the time. The Raiders emphasis on both 11 and 12 personnel doesn’t come as a surprise, given the tendency that 12 personnel was used in preseason. Despite this, Chip Kelly has always favored 11 personnel and 12 personnel mixed but usually leans more into an 11 personnel style which it seems is adapting to the Raiders in 2025. Along with 11 and 12 personnel, the Raiders ran 3 plays out of 13 personnel, all of which came in the redzone, though the Raiders weren’t overly efficient with -4.22 EPA (expected points added) which was 27th in the NFL for week 1.
The Raiders possess the personnel to effectively run both 11 and 12 personnel groupings, with tight ends Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer making up one of the NFL’s better duo’s. The Raiders do want to involve their receivers, and playing more often in a 11 personnel grouping will allow that. Headed into week 2, the Chargers saw 11 personnel on nearly 60% of their week 1 snaps and they allowed an average EPA of -0.73 on these snaps, compared to a 1.21 EPA on 12 personnel. Assuming Brock Bowers is healthy, look for the Raiders to lean more into a 12 personnel look against the Chargers.
In terms of formation groupings, the Raiders breakdown was as follows:
- 3×1: 38.71%
- 2×2: 27.5%
- 1×3: 22.6%
- 2×1: 6.45%
- 1×1: 1.61%
The Raiders seem to favor the 3×1 set running over 50% of their offensive snaps out of the formation and they saw a ton of success from the formation earning 11.72 EPA per pass attempt. Las Vegas is running this formation far higher than the NFL’s average of 41%. Las Vegas will likely tap back into this in week 2. 2×2 formations did not see as much success for the Raiders where they earned -2.31 EPA.
