Oakland Raider's Personnel Packaging 2011: Brhynno's Charting on Both Sides of the Ball, Starting with the O in the O.co

Well, Nation, the time has come! As promised, I plan to chart personnel groupings, formations, who, what, where, when, and how, on both sides of the ball, and will be doing so for the most part from my seats in the center of the Black Hole--a vantage point Pat Kirwan points out is supreme for analysis. This will serve as much an education for myself as I hope it does for all of the great football minds that comprise the most educated I have had the good fortune to happen upon on the world wide web. I have never coached organized ball, but hope to someday give back the passion I have for this game to the youth; my own understanding of X's and O's has been extremely enriched in our in depth discussions here, and I look forward to that continuing. Now, onto the nitty gritty.

While much of it was picked up watching our Raiders over the years, playing Madden since it was on Sega Genesis way back when, and listening to SiriusXM radio almost non-stop for years now, it was perhaps most refined reading books and journals everywhere. One title worth getting on this subject, is Pat Kirwan's "Take Your Eye Off the Ball," which can be found HERE. Take the jump, fellas. This is going to be good fun. I promise!

Most of us here know good and well our Oakland Raiders run primarily what coaches commonly refer to as "21 personnel." Simply, the initial 2 in the equation stands for the amount of backs on the field, and the second number, to the tight ends. This dictates the amount of receivers in turn, because when you do the math for the eleven players allowed on field during any given snap, with two backs and one tight end, you'll have two tackles, two guards, your center, and your quarterback, leaving two wideouts.

By the same token, some single back formations will also find two wideouts, as in "12" personnel groupings, or one back, and two TEs, or "11," meaning one and one, rarely, if ever seen with our Raiders, who, unlike many other teams in the league, as a rule, employ an old school, lead-blocking full back, and you can bet said FB will be absolutely employed in the passing game, not just as a checkdown outlet, but as a deep and red zone threat.

The below diagram from this RANDOM LINK, shows lots of the many possiblities; the internet, fortunately has more info. than you'll ever care to peruse from football geeks like you and I, so feel free to explore others:

Table 1: Personnel Packages Based on Numerical Names

Many of today's pass to set up the run offenses like the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts run mostly 11 personnel groupings, allowing three prolific wide receivers to run all types of crossing and rub-routes, designed to cause covering defenses to collide therein creating seams in zones and creating space in tight man coverages. I'm hoping to see some of this worked into our offense, but it's not likely we'll do much of anything that takes Marcel "the beast" Reece off the field, and probably rightfully so.

I have seen huge possiblities with the additions of the big and fast David Ausberry, drafted as a wideout but boasting a TE profile. We see also what the addition of an explosively fast guy like Taiwan Jones can do, because if you thought you were going to dedicate double teams to the McFaddens, Reeces, or Jacoby Ford's, you'd think twice after Taiwan Jones motioned from left slot to right slot without anyone coming across the field to greet him when the ball is snapped. Pretty exciting, right?

Perhaps the most notable exotic package the Raiders dialed up often in 2010 was the jumbo package, wherein OT Khalif Barnes is made eligible as an add'l TE, and we cannot forget the touchdown catch where he walked wide open into the end zone. What we may not remember, is that this package was dialed up quite a bit, right around the time Hue began to build around the strengths of his team--namely Darren McFadden--using the power blocking system and calling plays that didn't require Darren to juke or cut once the ball was in his hands; the plays that just required him to hit that second gear through holes a Mack truck could drive through found him stiff arming dudes at the second level and in the secondary, where I'll always recall that great quote from Jack Del Rio regarding the rare talent that is DMac. "The guys fast enough to catch him, aren't strong enough to bring him down." Here it is, just because it's fun to watch again:

Of course, we still have two backs on the field still, in a goal line version of jumbo personnel, no wideouts, two TEs, and Khalif the third, with Myers motioning from the left side to the right in that one. Listen closely to Solomon Wilcots, one of my faves, noting "the fake," which worked so well because we did this multiple times in this game netting huge runs prior to this play. Listen also after the score, to Wilcots giving props to Hue, "understanding the talents of his team." Did I mention I love that man?

Here it is again, wherein Khalif tries to pick up a nice first down on the opposite side, again, wide effing open, in the Seattle shellacking. I think this play was intended to be a run, but Jason improvised:

So, there will be more to come on this, Nation, and I'll be doing both sides of the ball as well! Preseason will have my hands full, as those games don't see starting personnel for many series at all, but increasingly as the games progress. I expect to get them finished and posted by Wednesday or Thursday of most weeks following Sunday games. Again, this has been an ongoing education for me, as well, and any and all input is greatly appreciated. This is about us understanding our football team, and it has been my great honor to learn alongside all of you, here, more than ever. I'm expecting Hue to get exotic this time around, not often, but when it counts. Any predictions on what we might see, Nation?