Just Stats Baby: Josh McDaniels edition

The Las Vegas Raiders offense was up and down last season. Early on, it appeared to be one of the best offenses In the league, especially in the air.

Enter Josh McDaniels, who is supposed to be announced as the new head coach of the Raiders soon. He is an offensive genius and mastermind and plans to take the offense to the next level.

Let's dive into his stats and see what he brings to the table for the Raiders:

21 personnel is his staple

The Patriot way is all about discipline is about dating week to week. One thing McDaniels is to keep versatile with his personnel groupings. However, one personnel package is his favorite and a staple of the offense.

In a league that has moved away from 21 personnel (2RBs 1 TE), The Patriots' offense has trended the opposite direction. Since 2017, McDaniels’ offense has run 21 25% of the time, which is second in the NFL in that span. He deploys it many ways having James White and Dion Lewis on the field simultaneously. Since Brady left, it has become more fullback-heavy in the system, but I expect to see Kenyan Drake and Josh Jacobs on the field more often together.

It all depends on how McDaniels feels about Carr in his offense. It is also huge for Renfrow fantasy owners because even with all the 21 personnel Julian Edleman played a lot of snaps. It will be interesting to see how he mixes it up.

Red zone offense

The most important topic of the Gruden era regarding offensive play was the red zone. This season, it came back to haunt the Raiders in the pivotal playoff loss to the eventual AFC Champions. Josh McDaniels has a good track record in the red zone as a play-caller.

Overall, they are 15th in red-zone percentage since 2017, with a great season in 2017 and two bad ones in 2019(26th) 2020(24th). 2021, they bounced back, finishing 11th with a 61% rate in the red zone. A pleasant change for the Raiders will be running the ball consistently in the red area. Since 2017, 19% of the touchdowns inside the 20 were rushing In New England.

Expect to see a ton of Renfrow and Waller down in this area where he featured Gronkowski and Edleman in recent years. Double china 7 is a concept they like in the red zone.

Hopefully, he can add significant elements to the offense and lead to more touchdowns.

RB featured in the passing game.

Jon Gruden added Drake last offseason to catch the football out of the backfield. With McDaniels coming into the position as head coach, the running backs will see those targets we were expecting for the previous regime.

Since 2017, The Patriots' offense was second in the NFL in targets to RB with 26.5 percent. Josh McDaniels does an excellent job creating screens and dump-offs to running backs in space. With Josh Jacobs and Drake in the backfield, we could see him implant choice routes and plays from the previous offense to make the transition easier for the players.

With the 21 personnel being a vital part of this offense, Alec Ingold might get looks in the passing game as well. He has displayed the ability to get open out of the backfield and help with the quarterback's dump-offs when under pressure.

Drake should be the primary beneficiary of this switch with his ability as a pass-catcher on full display.