HC Sean McVay may have hinted at fixing 1 of Ram's biggest flaws months ago

The Los Angeles Rams love to pass the football. It's their default setting, their go-to option when the chips are down and only the most elite NFL heroics can save the day. And why not? After all, the Rams offense boasts the King of Comebacks in veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford. But lately, the team seems to hold its breath and shoot itself in the foot, waiting for that magic to happen in the fourth quarter again, and again.

Blowout victories are nice too. The thing is, the Rams offense has not been creating the margins entering the fourth quarter that allow the team to give starters early outs. The last time the Rams offense had piled on enough points to sit some starters was the 2021 NFL season in games against the New York Giants and Houston Texans.

But to understand what faces the Rams in 2025, we need only to look at the offense in 2024. Last season, the Rams gained 331.4 yards per game, good enough to be ranked 15th overall in the NFL. In passing yards, the team put up 227.5 yards per game, good enough to be 10th best in the NFL. But the Rams rushing offense sagged last season, only putting up 103.8 yards per game, no better than a 24th ranking in the NFL.

As far as putting points on the scoreboard, the Rams averaged just 21.6 points per game, which was no better than 20th-best in the NFL. But the Rams offense was very opportunistic, scoring 22 points for the team last season. Without their scoring, the Rams would have fallen to the 22nd most effective offense. And that continues to be a problem.

Do the Rams have a new offensive wrinkle up their sleeves for 2025?

Rams HC Sean McVay is acutely aware that the offense struggled in 2024. But understanding the problem and fixing the problem are two entirely different ballparks. Part of the challenge to the Rams offense is that since hiring Mike LaFleur as the new offensive coordinator in 2023, the Rams have been slow to implement the innovations that LeFleur favors in his offense. LaFleur sharpened his eye teeth in the San Francisco 49ers offensive system, and as such, has a much greater appreciation for the tight end and running back roles in his offense.

The Rams front office understands that, and packed the Rams roster with four running backs and four tight ends. But the Rams never used more than one running back per play, and only tapped two tight ends 13.94 percent of the time. Per Sumersports.com, that left the Rams at 26th overall with 12-personnel packages.

The Rams have never exactly dominated with tight ends. Even when TE Tyler Higbee put up 522 receiving yards and two touchdowns in December 2022, he fell far short of breaking the 1000+ receiving yards plateau. And the Rams offense has long since moved on from dominating defenses with a punishing ground assault. But based on the downslide of the Rams' offensive potency in recent years, is it time to refocus the offense in the tight end and running back positions once more?

In the offseason, an interview with Coach McVay revealed that his former offensive coordinator, Liam Coen, caught his eye with effective innovations to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense:

So what did the Bucs do that the Rams would like to replicate? Well, for starters, the Bucanneers were among the NFL's Top Five offenses in yards gained and in points scored. The team was a Top-Three passing offense and a Top-Four rushing offense. So yes, the Rams could learn a thing or two from them. Like what?

Bucs balled out in 2024

I believe that the best place to start, and perhaps the only place to start, is to ignore the players involved and focus on the offensive scheme and formations. As far as the way the Rams run the offense, let's break down the key Rams offensive formations per SumerSports.com:

Los Angeles Rams

• 11 - personnel: 81.25%
• 12 - personnel: 13.94%
• 13- personnel: 0.29%
• 21- personnel: 0.00%
• 22- personnel: 0.00%
• 10- personnel: 1.83%
• All Others: 2.69 %

Now, let's look at the same personnel data for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive preferences, and see where the differences show up:

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

• 11 - personnel: 71.2%
• 12 - personnel: 16.91%
• 13- personnel: 3.11%
• 21- personnel: 6.22%
• 22- personnel: 0.00%
• 10- personnel: 0.46%
• All Others: 2.1 %

As expected, the Bucs seemed to use running backs and tight ends more frequently and in more diverse offensive roles than the Rams offense. How do I tell from this data? In personnel formations shown as Xx, the X signifies the number of running backs used in that formation, while the x signifies the number of tight ends deployed in that formation. Since the number of WRs, RBs, and TEs always equals five, the number of wide receivers always equals 5-X-x. In the case of 11 personnel, the formula shows 5-1-1, or three.

So if you compare the two teams, you see that the Bucs used multiple tight ends in over 20 percent of their plays, while the Rams settled for less than 15 percent of their plays. And the Bucs deployed multiple running backs more than six percent of the time, while the Rams never did.

The Rams running back room is bursting with young talent in 2025. And the Rams' addition of Terrance Ferguson screams more tight end usage for the upcoming season. Can you put money on it? We've heard offseason promises before that never panned out, so don't take this to the bank. Still, the Rams hired OC Mike LaFleur to upgrade the team's usage of running backs and tight ends.

It's high time to let him off the leash and see what those roles can do for the offense in 2025.

As always, thanks for reading.

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