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Since it is the preseason and the Arizona Cardinals have a new coaching staff and offensive scheme, it might be worthwhile to see the formations the team uses to perhaps get some insight as to what the offense might look like when the games actually count.
As such, here is how the offense was set in its formations.
The offense ran a total of 63 plays, and one of them was the end of the game kneeldown, so for our purposes, there were 62 plays.
Of the 62 plays, the most prevalent formation was with "12" personnel (one running back, two tight ends, two receivers). They ran 29 plays (47 percent of the plays) with two tight ends. We have heard on more than one occasion that two tight ends is Bruce Arians' favorite personnel. They ran the ball 18 times out of that formation and passed 11 times.
The next most common formation was with "11" personnel (one back, one tight end and three receivers), with 14 plays. They ran the ball six times and called eight pass plays.
After that was "13" personnel (three tight ends). They came out in this formation 10 times, running the ball seven times and calling three pass plays.
They went with one back, four wideouts and no tight end five times, passing four times and running once.
They went with an empty backfield three times, once with four receivers and one tight end and the other two times with five wideouts. They passed each time.
The one other formation was a jumbo package at the goalline. They went with one back, no receiver, three tight ends and a tackle eligible. Yes, they ran the ball.
Clearly this is early to draw conclusions, but if we can use this to predict a little, then we should not expect to see many plays for receivers not named Fitz, Floyd or Roberts. Over 87 percent of the plays saw three receivers or less on the field. I recall only twice where a tight end was lined up in the backfield when the ball was snapped.
We are going to see a lot of the tight ends and the top three receivers. It will be interesting to see how this evolves as we get closer to the season.
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