Chicago Bears: How changes to the running game can lead to offensive success

Personnel groupings and why.

The Chicago Bears only kept three running backs on the 53-man roster and did not sign any veteran backs like Adrian Peterson or Leonard Fournette. They have praised UDFA Ryan Nall for the past couple of season but have seemed to want to use him as a fullback in the past.

The vision of the most recent head coaches from the Andy Reid tree seems to have similar offensive philosophies. The Chicago Bears, according to Michael Fabiano of the NFL network, ran 59.3% of their plays from 11 personnel.

The Chicago Bears were in 21 personnel 11.5% and used 20 personnel, the third most at 4.2%. This is likely because they didn’t have any promising tight ends on the roster. The Kansas City Chiefs were in 11 personnel 60% of the time and 12 personnel 28% of the games that Mahomes started.

That is interesting because they still were in single tight ends twice the amount of times they were in anything else. Most likely because they have a very good and fast receiving core, this is where things get interesting and what Chicago Bear fans should expect.

The Philadelphia Eagles used 12 personnel more than any team last season at 46.1% of the time. The next highest grouping the Eagles ran was 11 personnel, which was at 40.3%. The Chicago Bears, in theory, should follow the Eagles trend, which can disguise what play is coming next more than it did in 2019. Why are personnel groupings important? I will discuss that next. Just remember that most teams outside of the eagles run one tight end and one running back.