Formation Usage in Today's NFL

[Front Office Midget]

Some links that FOF players may find interesting:


2017 Personnel Grouping Frequency (https://www.sharpfootballstats.com/personnel-grouping-frequency.html)

2016 Offensive Personnel Analysis (https://www.footballoutsiders.com/index.php?q=stat-analysis/2017/2016-offensive-personnel-analysis)

Out of the box, I'd been pretty disappointed with FOF8 and its insistence upon the 113.

Some takeaways from the above links:

1. Every team in the NFL runs the 113 as its main offense, between 40-80% of the time
2. Every team uses the 122 between 10-35% of the time.
3. The 212 is only used over 10% of the time by 9 teams
4. Carolina, Jacksonville, Philadelphia, and Tennessee are the only teams that use the 131 over 10% of the time.
5. Only Baltimore and Pittsburgh use the 221 over 10% of the time
6. Only Arizona, Jacksonville, and New York use the 104 over 10% of the time
7. The 005 is practically dead as a formation. Arizona used it 85 times, or 8%. Nobody else used it more than 10 times (1%) all season last year.
8. Arizona, Green Bay, and Oakland are the only teams to use the 014 over 5% of the time, with a max at 8% (80)

So this is why Jim designed the game so that more exotic formations could not be used too frequently--they just aren't, in today's game.

[bdubbs]

There are so many reasons why the NFL has shifted in this direction, and even as someone who has been a fan all my life, played football through my youth, and did a little HS coaching I'm sure many of those reasons are still beyond my understanding.

What I do know is the NFL can benefit those who deviate from the status quo and throw things at defenses that they aren't used to. The season before Aaron Hernandez caught that murder charge is a good example imo. The pats were able to do all kinds of things with 2 TE sets that opposing defenses weren't used to seeing, and were also giving teams headaches because its hard to match up defensive players to TEs in general.

Athletes like David Johnson or Lev Bell change the game in uncommon ways and present unique challenges to defensive coordinators as well. They are equally dangerous on the ground, in open space, and run clean enough routes that they can line up in the slot and be dangerous receivers as well.

Bell's unique running style is another big advantage, and as his OL unit has adjusted to his style he's only gotten more dangerous as a runner.

So yeah, its true the NFL is a 3 WR passing league and I think that's what the NFL wants because fans want to see high scoring games. That's why they changed the rules to create so many more defensive penalties.

At the same time though even the Browns aren't going to let you line up in a 221 all day and run the ball down their throats, power running just doesn't work at the NFL level anymore. The 113 forces teams to adopt a nickel base defense and helps stretch the defense to create better holes in the running game. It's just a more balanced formation and gives you more options to keep the defense guessing what's coming next imo.

[garion333]

Nice to see someone linking to Sharp. Dude is on the verge of becoming really well known in NFL circles.