New York Jets: Multiple tight ends should be used vs. Colts
The New York Jets enter the Week 6 game against the Colts with a 2-3 record, and they should employ multiple tight ends frequently.
The NFL is changing. According to data gathered from Sharp Football Stats, NFL teams have runs 11 personnel (one back, one tight end) 62.7 percent of the time on 9,730 total plays this season. The New York Jets are less typical than the league at 50.5 percent of the time, but they need to employ a different strategy.
The Jets should use multiple tight ends more often. For one things, it’ll provide the offensive line with aid in both pass protection and run blocking. Second, it disguises run and play action better.
On the first touchdown pass to Robby Anderson in Week 5, the Jets ran a multiple tight end formation with an empty backfield. Even though it was a successful play, it was because the Jets ran max protect and Anderson beat the coverage deep.
The Jets have also been more successful on plays that have multiple tight ends — whether they are lined up in line, on the wing, or out wide. According to Sharp Football Stats, they’ve run six plays with multiple tight ends and 336 plays with one or zero tight ends.
Their success rate on plays with one or zero tight ends is 38.8 percent. With multiple tight ends that success rate jumps to 43.1 percent. Their most successful success rate for both run and pass is 12 personnel.
In addition to the help, Sam Darnold has produced better under 12 personnel as well. He has a passer rating of 119, touchdown to interception ratio of four to one, and 8.6 yards per attempt in 12 personnel. All of those are the highest among any of the personnel groupings the Jets have used in 2018.
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They’ve run 12 personnel half as often as 11 personnel but are more successful when doing so. They can run 11 personnel, but it’s time to stop doing so at such frequency. Sure, it would be nice to be with the times in the NFL, but the Jets are better when they’re not. So, it’s time to ditch the idea of running a base 11 personnel set and switch to what works.