How Falcons offense is adopting NFL’s latest — and heaviest — trend

FLOWERY BRANCH — It’s been nearly two decades since Falcons tight ends coach Kevin Koger lettered as a basketball standout at Whitmer High School, but he’ll still let his mind wander to the hardwood.

When Koger sees tight ends Kyle Pitts, Charlie Woerner and Austin Hooper grace the field together — as they’ve done several times during Falcons training camp — he thinks about experience. He thinks about camaraderie. He thinks about pickup basketball games.

“They’re veteran guys,” Koger said during training camp. “You go to the pickup court and you play with guys that have been playing for a long time and it’s like, ‘OK, they know how to play basketball,’ so you know how to fit in, in terms of that pickup team. Not calling this pickup basketball, but same thought process.

“Those guys are in there. They’ve played a lot of football. ‘OK, we’re hitting the block like this.’ ‘Awesome. I felt this before. They know what we feel. We know what we expect out of each other.’ So, it makes that learning curve a lot faster.”

The Falcons tapped into “13″ personnel — one running back and three tight ends — on only 6.68% of their offensive snaps last season, which still ranked slightly above league average, according to SumerSports. But the entire NFL paled in comparison to the Rams, who operated from 13 personnel 30.48% of the time.

Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees didn’t fully embrace the trend last year with the Browns, who finished 18th in the league with a 13-personnel rate of 4.17%.

They are embracing it now — or at least they’re experimenting with it.

And they’re not alone.

“You’re probably going to see an uptick around the league, in general,” Woerner told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Saturday. “Everyone watched what the Rams did last year out of 13 personnel, so I think everyone copies each other a little bit in this league, and it works.

“We’re just trying it out and testing it throughout training camp, see how it goes.”

The NFL gradually shifted more toward 11 personnel — one running back, one tight end, three receivers — in recent years, and it remains the most common offensive package across the league.

But the Falcons and the Stefanski-led Browns were two of the NFL’s heaviest teams in terms of tight end usage last season.

The Browns ran 11 personnel on 44% of their plays and 12 personnel — one running back, two tight ends — a league-high 41.2% of the time. The Falcons had a similar ratio, running 11 personnel 45.1% of their snaps and 12 personnel at a 38.2% clip.

All together, the ingredients suggest the Falcons will be tight end-heavy this fall. They kept Koger, the tight ends coach the past two seasons. They hired Stefanski and Rees, both former tight ends coaches. And they’re trying to stay on top of one of the NFL’s budding philosophical trends.

“You get the bigger personnel group, you get to dictate a little bit,” Koger said. “So you’ve been seeing that a lot around the NFL, but the thing about it, you need to have the tight ends to be able to do that. I think we have those guys. You have different skill sets in the room that allow you to be creative in your personnel grouping. So, that’s going to be a lot of fun.”

The Falcons’ trio of tight ends come with different builds, athletic traits and career points.

Pitts is the headliner. At 6-foot-6, 250 pounds, the 25-year-old inked a three-year, $54 million contract extension this summer that made him the third-highest-paid tight end in the league. He finished 10th in the NFL with 88 receptions last season and, when at his best, can be a matchup nightmare.

Woerner, 28, is the polar opposite. He’s never seen more than 12 targets thrown his way in a season (2024) and never has caught more than eight passes in a season (2025), but the 6-foot-5, 250-pounder is regarded as an elite blocker.

Hooper is the middle man. Entering his 11th NFL season, he’s a soft-handed security blanket who’s evolved over time as a blocker. His leadership and veteran savvy have been a bonus to the room, and he projects as a more productive pass-catching complement to Pitts than Woerner was last season.

Pulling it together

On a pickup basketball team, Pitts is the dominant scorer, Hooper is the secondary option and Woerner is the glue guy. On the Falcons’ offense, they’re three separate engines that morph into one cohesive — and advantageous — personnel grouping.

“I think we’re a great trio out there,” Woerner said. “I think we all bring something different to the game. We’re all unique in our way, and then we honestly all just mesh well out there. We just communicate really well together. We’re comfortable in the huddle. We’re all veterans, and there’s just a big comfort thing with us.

“It’s fun to play with those guys.”

The Falcons started implementing their 13 personnel packages in OTAs, when pace of play is slower and install periods are higher. In training camp, it’s full speed ahead. They’re still running plays, but with curiosity as much as anything.

What can their tight ends handle? What will the finished product be? Koger said the team won’t fully know until the end of camp.

But such responsibility is exactly what Koger’s tight ends wanted.

“It puts more on our plate, and that’s what we want,” Koger said. “You want a lot to be required out of you. That’s what the guys have been asking for. So I was like, ‘Guys, now it’s here. We got to be able to produce. We got to be able to do what’s asked of us.’ The guys want the challenge, and that’s what we want.”

At its simplest form, Woerner said the rise in 13 personnel is a chance to be creative, to do something new, to show defenses looks they haven’t seen before. The Rams found great success with it, finishing the year with 77.4 expected points added, the fifth-best mark by a team in any personnel grouping.

The Falcons, Stefanski said, are using training camp to explore their best packages. They like the various methods Pitts, Hooper and Woerner can work together to beat a defense. They also like the versatility and matchup options posed by the trio.

“It’s all about getting good players on the field and then a response that you get from the defense,” Stefanski said. “Certainly, we feel really good about those three guys, and then it’s a matter of what you want it to look like with those three guys on the field.

“The beauty of that position, again, is that you can line up in multiple formations in that personnel group. At times, you can attempt to get a certain look from the defense.”

The Falcons’ tight ends enter this year with a lighthearted goal to see Woerner catch a touchdown. Through six NFL seasons, he’s never scored. If training camp is any indication, the Falcons’ offense may make 2026 the year of the tight end, so perhaps Woerner can make some magic, too.

There’s a chance the Falcons scrap the plan entirely if they can’t find the right balance or get enough return on their training camp investment. But there’s also a chance — a strong one, if camp is any indication — the Falcons buy into the NFL’s latest personnel trend.

It’s a copycat league, and the Falcons may follow the Rams’ blueprint from last season — much to Pitts’ delight.