This NFL Trend Has A MAJOR IMPACT On The Minnesota Vikings…

This NFL Trend Has A MAJOR IMPACT On The Minnesota Vikings…

[music] Yo, what’s going on everybody? Welcome to the Vikings now by chat sports. My name is Patrick Semin. Coming up on today’s show, we’re going to be looking at an NFL trend that should have major impact on the Minnesota Vikings that actually comes from Kevin Okcono’s mentor Shawn McVey. So, we’ll dive into that first on today’s show. But then later, speaking about the tight end position, we will be talking about TJ Hawinson. Will he be a tight end for the Vikings in 2026? We’ll break it down on the second half of today’s show. But the trend I want to start with is the usage of 13 personnel across the NFL. Now, if you guys don’t know, 13 personnel is one wide receiver, three tight ends, and the Los Angeles Rams have been using 13 personnel more than any team this season and more than any team I have seen in recent memory is they are running 13 on almost a quarter of their snaps offensively so far this season. And the biggest reason why they’re running 13 personnel so much is because they have been incredibly incredibly successful. I mean, the EPA being 54.37 is absolutely ridiculous. And their EPA per pass very very high. Now, you would assume that your EPA per run would actually be higher since you do have three tight ends on the field. You have some bigger bodies out there, but they are incredibly effective passing the football. 46 uh EPA and that’s in the plus and then.14 EPA per run which is unreal stuff out of this guy Shawn McVey and you know you see that number 54.37 that’s huge but the league average in EPA and 13 personnel is actually in the negative which is incredibly incredibly you know positive for the Rams and how they want to run their offense is that they’re finding so much success using those three tight ends. So, we’ll discuss how this kind of impacts the Minnesota Vikings, what they should do in their personnel usage here just in a second. But speaking about this game this upcoming weekend, if you guys want JJ McCarthy to have another good game, don’t go down there, hit that thumbs up icon for us, I want JJ to keep on stacking these good performances. So, if you guys want to have him have him have his third good game in a row, go down there, hit that thumbs up icon. So Shawn McVey this season and I think this is kind of getting undertalked about you know on ESPN, Fox Sports, some of these big time sports media publications. I don’t really think they’re talking enough about the 13 personnel usage from Shawn McVey and the Los Angeles Rams because it is truly became the new meta in the NFL is using multiple tight end sets. You’re going heavy in a lot of these formations and you’re allowing yourself for these teams for defenses this year, especially at the first half of the season. and they’re running nickel more than they ever have in the NFL’s history. But now McVey to combat that, he’s like, “Okay, if you’re going to run nickel, I just put two, three tight ends out there and we’ll get downhill.” And the Vikings, they barely run 13 personnel. You know, like I said earlier, the Rams run 13 on almost a quarter of their snaps. So the Vikings run 13 personnel on 2.82% of their snaps. And the Vikings, they live out of 11 personnel. The league average for 11 is around 57%. But Kevin Okonnell, he loves using it. 65.94% of the time. Then two tight end sets, he uses it about 22% of the time. And when I see this, my immediate thought is, why the hell did we pay Josh Oliver? You have one of the better run blocking tight ends in the league paired up with TJ Hawinson. Why aren’t you using multiple tight end sets more? I just do not understand that. And what’s even more concerning is the EPA breakdown in certain personnels for the Vikings. won the run in 11. It is the second worst in the National Football League out of every single personnel grouping at negative68.48. That is horrible. But the Vikings, the only personnel grouping that they are successful in is 13 in terms of EPA um throughout the entire season. So hopefully KOC obviously probably knows these stats too. This is not no, you know, mindbreaking stuff that Kevin Okcono seen this. He’s like, “Oh wow, like maybe we should run 13 personnel more.” like he obviously knows all this and you know I will say like it does make some sense why Kevin Oonnell wants to live out of uh 11 personnel like you got three really good wide receivers with Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and Jaylen Naylor. So in his thought process he’s probably like why would I not have three of my better players offensively out there on the football field as much as I can. However, he should have adjusted earlier. Like he should have noticed this trend closer to like week six and seven of the season instead of um you know as over the last couple of weeks he has started to use 13 personnel a lot more over the last two weeks. So that is good that Kevin Okconor last two weeks has adjusted a little bit because heading into that Commander game, the Vikings have only ran 13 personnel five plays. Commanders game they did a 10. Don’t know the exact number of how often they used it against the Cowboys but it was around that 10 number as well. So, at least he has adjusted and he has, you know, changed up his offensive philosophy a little bit because even Shawn McVey, like he was the king of 11 personnel. Like that was kind of McVeyy’s thing, especially when they went on that Super Bowl run with uh OBJ Cooper Cup, like they were putting a lot of receivers out there and they just had an advantage on the outside every week. But McVey has changed. And you know, I think we all talk about as Vikings fans where it’s like, oh, we need to be patient. We need to let JJ McCarthy develop. But I think the same can be said about our head coach. I’ve been super critical of Kevin Okcono this year not putting his quarterback in advantageous spots throughout the season like what he did to Max Bromer I thought was crit uh criminal what he’s been doing to JJ McCarthy especially early on in the season just never changing his philosophy I think he was setting him up for failure not success so you know we all talk about JJ developing well how about you let your head coach develop and he has developed like the past two weeks running 13 personnel more than he’s ever has as the Vikings head coach running the football more quick game and quick pass game concepts like at least KOC has kind of noticed the trends in the NFL especially coming from his mentor Shawn McVey and he has been changing his ways over the last couple weeks. So hopefully that does continue for the rest of the season. But I want you guys to get down in the comments section and grade Kevin Oonnell as the Vikings head coach this season. I think he’s been better the last two weeks, but I can’t give him an A or a B. I would probably be around a C C minus. Also considering like the standard for Kevin Okcono. I mean the guy was just coming off a coach of the year award. I mean, last year was probably an A grade for Kevin Okonnell being the Vikings head coach, but this year I probably go around that C C minus range. Now, we’ll talk about TJ Hawinson here in just a second, but I do got to tell you guys about today’s presenting sponsor, and that is Factor Meals. Now, if you guys want to eat smart, head over to factormeals.com/viking50 off and use promo code Viking Chef 50 off to get 50% off your first box, plus free breakfast for 1 year. Now, eating well during the holiday season can feel impossible. 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This exclusive holiday offer won’t last, so lock in your savings before the new year rush. offer only valid for new factor customers with code and qualifying autorenewing subscription purchase. All right, so we’re going to dive into a bunch of numbers here and discuss if it makes sense for the Vikings to cut TJ Hawinson because I think a lot of us kind of assume that this will be his last year as the Vikings tight end, which is uh you know kind of messed up that we’re talking about this right now because I thought he had his best game of his season against the Dallas Cowboys. I mean he had four catches going for 66 yards getting targeted only five times. Um, and I thought he was just, you know, kind of looked like his prime version of himself where he was, you know, making guys miss. He was, uh, had some great late and soft hands, especially that one corner route he caught from JJ McCarthy where he was blocking for about a second and a half, peeled off, caught that corner. It was a really, really good play for TJ Hawinson. But let’s talk about the financial situation here. So, we’re going to dive through a bunch of numbers, so stay with us. But Hawinson’s 2026 contract details. If they cut him prejun 1, you would have about $12.5 million in deadcap money and you would save around $9 million. So a net negative about three. But if you make him a post June 1 cut, you would save a whole lot more, which I think out of all the scenarios we’re going with right now, this is probably the most likely option is that the Vikings do end up cutting him and then they do end up saving $16 million post June one. Now, you can’t designate guys. You can designate up to two players every year to be a post June one cut. So if the Vikings like right as the season ends, you can just designate Hawk as a post June one cut and save those $16 million. Let’s just say the Vikings try to trade him. Now this would be prejune1. Um you would still have the same thing, $12 million dead money around $9 million in cap savings. So that doesn’t really give the Vikings too much of advantage unless you do want to get some extra draft capital. So it’s really what do you value? Do you value that extra like fifth, sixth round pick you could get for Hawk or do you value that extra, you know, $12 million you could save in free agency? But let’s just say the Vikings do run it back with Hawk and they end up cutting him before the 2027 season. Well, the cap savings would obviously go up. You would save around $18 million there and then you would only take on about $5 million in dead cap. Now, let’s just say you wanted to trade hawk the next off season. you would also save a little bit more money around $7 million in dead money and then you would save around $16 million uh with the cap savings. So, it’s a little tricky situation, but I definitely think the most likely option is that the Vikings want to make a post June one cut where you’d save those $16 million and you would also only take on 5.35 of dead money. Now, the only problem with cutting TJ Hawinson and kind of what we were talking about at the first half of today’s show of using multiple tight ends is if you do cut TJ Hawinson, the Vikings tight end room would become below average. Like I love Josh Oliver. He is a fantastic tight end. He is one of the best tight end twos in the NFL because of what he does in the run game. Also has some really soft hands. He’s been making plays over the last couple weeks. I still can’t get over Chris Collinsworth saying Josh Oliver’s game against the Commanders, one of the best performances he has seen all year. Chris, he had two catches for 25 yards and two touchdowns. I thought that was absolutely hilarious. But I think this would open up the door for the Vikings maybe targeting somebody in the draft. And Kenyon Sadique, the tight end out of Oregon. Now, obviously with the college football playoff starting this weekend, if you guys want a fun player to watch, this is him. Sadique, he could be a sneaky draft target for the Minnesota Vikings. This dude is a bad mfer. He loves to jump over people. I mean, you go turn on his highlight tape, you’ll see this guy trying to hurdle about 10 to 20 guys through a 10-minute highlight video. This guy’s an absolute stud. Now, a little undersized, only 6’2, but he’s physical in the run game. He’s also a physical in the passing game where he’ll just kind of throw off a linebacker with a shoulder, creates some separation, has really good hands, a freak freak ass. You guys can just kind of see his legs and his athletic ability in this photo, but I really highly recommend go throw in his highlight tape after you watch today’s show. So, watch out for this guy being a sneaky draft target, especially with the Vikings. Maybe they miss out on Caleb DS, miss out on Mansor Delane, maybe they miss out on Jeremiah Love. This could be a sneaky guy the Vikings could draft. But you guys let me know. Would you move on from Hawk? Should the Vikings cut TJ Hawinson? Give me a Y for yes or an N for no down below. We’ll get on out of here. As always, let’s go Vikes.

Minnesota Vikings news and rumors discussed on December 17th, 2025:
– Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams have dominated the 2025 NFL season with the trend of using 13 personnel on offense and this could have a major impact on the Vikings.
– Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell wanted to live with an 11 personnel mindset at the start of the season, but that changed against the Washington Commanders and Dallas Cowboys.
– Tight end T.J. Hockenson could be a cut candidate for the Minnesota Vikings this offseason.
– Chat Sports host Patrick Siepman breaks down the latest Minnesota Vikings news and rumors on today’s Vikings YouTube video!

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Los Angeles Rams 13 personnel EPA in the 2025 NFL season:
– Overall EPA: 54.37
– EPA per Pass: 0.46
– EPA per Run: 0.14

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T.J. Hockenson stats vs. Dallas Cowboys:
– 4 receptions
– 5 targets
– 66 receiving yards
– 0 touchdowns

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Vikings defensive coaches:
Defensive Coordinator: Brian Flores
Safeties Coach: Stephen Adegoke
Linebackers Coach: Bill Davis
Defensive Line Coach: Rod Wright
Defensive PG Coordinator: Cory Undlin
Defensive Backs Coach: Dino Vasso
Assistant DL Coach: Nate Ollie
Defensive Assistant: Ben Bolling
Defensive Assistant: Ryan Milus

Let me know what you think of today’s questions based on the latest Vikings news & rumors:
– Grade Kevin O’Connell as the Vikings HC this season! A, B, C, D or F
– Should the Vikings cut T.J. Hockenson? Type ‘Y’ for Yes or ‘N’ for No

Want more Vikings content & Minnesota Vikings YouTube videos? Watch more here:
– Do The Vikings Have A Justin Jefferson Problem?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ2XyI8wKo8
– This MOVE Would Change Everything For The Vikings…: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fitfpf0rK_s
– LATEST Vikings Rumors On J.J. McCarthy & Justin Jefferson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v8R2-B0_og

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