How Bengals, Joe Burrow's offense is evolving from usual 11 personnel-heavy scheme

For as long as Zac Taylor has been Bengals head coach, he’s leaned into one primary tenet of his offense: Stay in 11 personnel, one tight end, three receivers, dare you to stop it.

That made a lot of sense when those three receivers were Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd.

With Boyd in Tennessee, Joe Mixon in Houston and a cornucopia of unique weapons across the skill positions, Taylor shifted into a game plan designed to offset two-high shells every team uses to keep Cincinnati (and everyone else) from churning out deep throws.

The Bengals have never run below 72 percent of their plays for a season in 11 personnel under Taylor, but thus far they are all the way down to 59.6 percent.

The use of two or more tight ends has nearly tripled from last season.

Welcome to the latest evolution of the Cincinnati offense.

“That’s been a part of where we saw this going all spring and training camp,” Taylor said. “When you’ve got guys that you believe in, which we’ve got several tight ends that we believe in, it allows you to be multiple and open it up.”

In the first half alone against Kansas City, Joe Burrow threw for more yards (111) to tight ends than any game in his career. Faced with a fourth-and-4 on the first drive of the game he fired a dart over the middle to Mike Gesicki, who ran for 37 yards. Burrow looked his way again for a critical third-down conversion in the fourth quarter as he finished with 91 yards.

Erick All hauled in a 19-yarder on a day he made his first professional catch. Even Drew Sample provided a spark off the top with the first two receptions of the day for positive gains.

One of the most interesting elements of using multiple tight ends hasn’t necessarily been that the Bengals have gone to that personnel grouping more. As Taylor said, you could see the trend as they recalibrated with new players on the outside. The substantial shift has been turning multiple tight ends into a passing weapon.

Noting the important small sample disclaimer here, they are on pace for more passes out of 12/13 personnel this year (179) than in the previous three years combined (141).

Judging early returns, it’s increased their efficiency in the run and pass games.

“It could be more so in some games than others,” Taylor said. “Sometimes it gets you matchups in the run game. Sometimes it gets matchups in the pass game, with your receivers, even.”

The Bengals are constantly searching for ways to get the opponents out of nickel defense and instead putting three linebackers on the field. It’s been nearly impossible to make that happen in recent seasons, but one of the best methods to make it happen would be to punish teams in the run game.

This is a trend unfolding across the league where rushing efficiency is dramatically rising while passing efficiency is dropping as teams sit back in deep coverages keeping everything in front of them against everyone.

The only touchdown drive of the opener against the Patriots came with the Bengals featuring 12 personnel with All and Sample then pounding New England in the run game all the way down the field. Every run qualified as a successful rush, including a 16-yard explosive and 5-yard touchdown run from Zack Moss.

The Bengals’ success rate running out of 12/13 personnel the last three seasons was 38 percent. This season the number ballooned to 73.3 percent. That figure leads the league and the NFL average is 45.8 percent.

Sure, the sample is small, but the early returns set up for an even deeper lean into what’s been going right.

As with all coaches, attention to their own trends becomes an important part of the approach. Throwing the ball more with multiple tight ends on the field keeps opponents from focusing on the back when the handoff does come. Plus, Burrow’s ability to diagnose if the coverage fares better for a pass and check into an open throw increases the chances for success. Specifically, it has increased the success rate by 15 percent over last season.

That’s not just by virtue of catching the 14 passes for 151 yards, but also the ability to hold down the protection if necessary.

Alien invasion 👽

47-yds from @JoeyB to @NASAMAINE3!!

📺: #CINvsKC on CBS/@paramountplus pic.twitter.com/Hyai46JIzO

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) September 15, 2024

Consider a 47-yard bomb to Jermaine Burton on the first play out of halftime. The Bengals lined up with two tight ends, one being Gesicki in motion to draw attention. Only, he ended up staying in to protect alongside All and the max-protection with two in the route gave 3.3 seconds with nobody near Burrow to unleash the go route down the sideline.

That’s where All’s versatility has stood out. He won’t show up in the stat book beyond logging an offensive snap on the critical fourth-and-goal touchdown pass to Andrei Iosivas, but he deserves an assist.

He was asked to block Chiefs dynamic edge George Karlaftis one-on-one on the play and stonewalled him for the full 4.2 seconds until Burrow released it. If fourth-and-16 goes differently, his block could rightfully be viewed as a game-winning performance.

2nd TD on the day for @AndreiIosivas 👏

📺: #CINvsKC on CBS/Paramount
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/GAuB0plzN3

— NFL (@NFL) September 15, 2024

Really, any way Taylor and offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher can scheme plays that provide more time to Burrow — whether through personnel groupings or play call — the better for everyone. They schemed those opportunities up specifically utilizing shotgun play action through the first two weeks, with the biggest plays coming out of 12 personnel.

Burrow is 5 of 7 for 100 yards on shotgun play action this season, the 13.6 yards per attempt second-best in the situation across the league. They had gains of 47 yards (Burton), 19 (All) and 12 (Sample) using that method, each of those providing at least 3.2 seconds to throw. Tight ends on the field add to the gravity toward the run and harder sell from the defense on the play action.

How much will it continue when Tee Higgins makes his anticipated return on Monday against the Commanders? His return makes it harder to take Iosivas off the field in favor of the second tight end. Time will tell and the implementation will be game plan-dependent.

What we do know is the Bengals have been quite good at these thus far, they are a potent counter to the league’s trend to leave light boxes in exchange for the security of two-deep safety coverages designed to minimize explosive passes.

This all goes directly against what Taylor and the Bengals have been in Cincinnati, but there’s no denying seeds of the next evolution of Burrow’s offense poked through and started to bloom out of the Kansas City grass on Sunday.

(Photo of Erick All Jr.: Erick W. Rasco / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)