Chiefs: Andy Reid Wins With 12 and 13 Personnel

Laddie Morse

Over the years, Andy Reid has been known as an offensive guru. He’s someone the Chiefs Kingdom have been known to lift high as a play-caller. While we have been blessed with his winning ways, the question is, why? A part of the reason is his creative use of the 12 and 13 personnel and we can see how it’s going to manifest itself into more success this upcoming season with the addition of Jared Wiley and the two speedsters, Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy. Although I’ll be focusing on 12 and 13 personnel groupings today, sharpfootballanalysis.com offers this take on the different offensive groupings in the NFL:

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The above may raise the question: how often are each of these Personnel Groupings used in the NFL? sharpfootballanalysis.com offers this data:

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Defining the 12 and 13 Personnel

blog.kinetex.co defines these as being:

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“12 personnel, characterized by one running back,

2 tight ends, and 2 wide receivers,

13 personnel with one running back, 3 tight ends,

and one wide receiver….”

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Andy Reid hasn’t always used the 13 personnel package on offense, but he has increased his usage of it over the past several season. It’s also important to note that he has used it much more than the league average (seen above). Here’s a screen capture from the video below starring Nate Tice in his podcast called “Wind the Clock” showing how it has been utilized over the past several season:

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With the new additions to the Chiefs offense, namely… Jared Wiley, Hollywood Brown, and Xavier Worthy… it’s easy to see our resident genius — Andy Reid — calling more plays that scream for their use in the 13 personnel scheme. Nate Tice spells it out in his piece called: “Why Travis Kelce is Going Off With 13 Personnel.” Let take a look (13:59):

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Nate Tice is a one time college QB Plus Writer for Yahoo Sports and The Athletic, a NFL & College Football Analyst

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By the way, don’t you think Nate Tice looks a lot like the Prince in Shrek?

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While the third TE may line up on either side of the formation, the alignment looks generally like this:

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With Jared Wiley the Chiefs can run the ball with an extra large man in to block for RB Isiah Pacheco… or… throw the ball out of either the 13 personnel of the 12 personnel set up. Lost in the shuffle of the draft and the Rashee Rice debacles is the speed of Hollywood Brown. He ran a 4.27 at his pro day and he is also a veteran Wideout in the NFL having played 3 years for he Baltimore Ravens and 2 years for the Arizona Cardinals. Also, Hollywood was a first round pick, #25, in the 2019 NFL Draft.

It doesn’t seem to matter, as far as optics goes, if Hollywood is in on 12 or 13 personnel of if Worthy is in on 12 or 13 personnel… the likelihood of success appears high. High for slants… high for hook patterns… high for deep post patterns… or high for running the ball down an opponents throat.

Considering the two chart above, it looks like K.C. is in either the 12 or 13 personnel scheme over one-third of the time while on offense. It’ easy to see why Reid would want to draft both Xavier Worthy and Jared Wiley. The addition of Wiley is not as much about lining up a replacement for Travis Kelce — because there is no such thing as lining up a true replacement for Travis Kelce — as it is about running the 12 and 13 personnel successfully. The same could be siad for Xavier Worthy and I won;t be surprised if Worthy is only on the field for about 50% of the offensive plays this year. Afterall, rookie Rashee Rice was only in on 58% of the offensive snaps in 2023.

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Here’s Daniel Harms of RGR Football breaking down the help that Jared Wiley can give to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense this coming season (26:03):

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Chip & Bail

Here’s Chief Concerns with Jason Dunn talking about a RB or a TE helping to “chip” a pass rusher (1:30):

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Based on what Jason Dunn has said, it sounds like there will be help chipping for a Tackle… no matter what! That means the Chiefs may not be as concerned about who their Left Tackle might be, because whoever it is, our new TE is going to be one of those who help to chip a blind side rusher. So, it sounds like Wanya Morris and Kingsley Suamataia will be getting help from Jared Wiley, or who ever else Reid runs out there.

That’s not to take into account all the times a TE will chip and then run a hook route to give Patrick Mahomes a short alternative target to throw to. In fact, a TE who does a good job of “Chip & Bail”… could be a primary target. Did K.C. and the powers that be, already know when they release Jody Fortson that they would be taking a TE in the draft? Intriguing question.

The use of 12 and 13 personnel will make up the difference for the Chiefs in 2024. The more Andy Reid uses these schemes, the more successful the team will be. What do you think?

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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