How the pistol revolutionized the Rams offense in 2023

AJ Schulte

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How the pistol revolutionized the Rams offense in 2023 image

Under Sean McVay, the Los Angeles Rams have consistently paved the way in offensive innovation. From McVay's outside zone-heavy offense he started with, to his usage of bunch formations and motion, and last year's evolution of their run game, teams have been trying to steal from the Rams since McVay was hired. This year, teams are likely to try again with a new wrinkle McVay is adding to the Rams' offense: the pistol formation. 

What makes this shift unique is that the Rams never ran out of pistol under Sean McVay. The Rams did not record a single snap in the pistol in any season under McVay until last season. It was such a drastic shift that it's worth exploring why the Rams suddenly broke it out and where it could lead in their 2024 season.

Why the Pistol?

The Los Angeles Rams have had two main playbooks under Sean McVay, coinciding with their quarterbacks. With Jared Goff, the Rams utilized a lot of under-center dropbacks off of play action. The goal was to try and create open looks for Goff and take some of the mental processing load off of him. Unfortunately, Goff became largely only good on play-action, and as the Rams' run game declined with Todd Gurley's health and offensive line woes, the Rams' offense sunk with it. Enter Matthew Stafford, who completely changed their offense.

Instead of heavy under-center, play-action dropbacks, McVay relied on Stafford's veteran savvy and leaned into giving him plenty of standard deep dropbacks. The Rams didn't totally stop using play-action but leaned on it less and less under Stafford-introducing a radical change that catapulted the Rams to a Super Bowl victory in 2021.  

In 2023, the Rams had an inauspicious start to the season, entering their bye week at 3-6 off of the heels of some ugly losses to the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers. Stafford suffered a thumb injury and the Rams limped into the bye week disheartened and seeking answers. It was here that McVay's genius struck again. 

They needed to find a new balance on offense, a way to reinvigorate their inconsistent ground game while still keeping the passing threat of Stafford with Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp. 

Thus, the Rams turned to the pistol formation, a unique blend of their under-center run game and shotgun passing game with Stafford. 

Los Angeles deployed it almost exclusively after their bye week and the results were immediate. The Rams jumped from roughly 4 yards per carry pre-bye to 4.5 post-bye despite running more in the second half of the season. After starting the season with three straight games under four yards per carry, RB Kyren Williams never had another game below four.  

The Rams had sprinkled in one or two plays out of the pistol in three different games before the bye week, but they truly embraced it post-bye. At the end of the 2023 season, the Rams finished fourth in the NFL in pistol plays, with a full 10.1% of their offensive plays. Keep in mind that the Rams barely used it in the first nine games of the season and finished with that tally. They hammered the pistol at teams down the stretch and it worked, with the offense regaining its spark and the Rams going 7-1 post-bye to make the playoffs.

Why the pistol? What is so unique about the pistol that it unlocked the Rams' offense? I said earlier it was a happy medium between shotgun and under-center, and that was the original intent of the inventor. 

The pistol is a fairly modern innovation in football, with the widely accepted founder being Nevada head coach Chris Ault in 2004. In an effort to find a way to get his run game going in an ever-increasingly passing game, Ault devised the pistol formation-a marriage of under-center and shotgun principles.

In shotgun looks, the run game can oftentimes be too slow-developing. Teams have fewer rushing options out of the gun, running backs are stuck waiting for plays to develop instead of already moving downhill when they get the ball, and opposing teams can key their pass-rush based on where the back is lined up in shotgun. Shotgun also tends to have a lower output on play-action passes, and teams don't really respect the run game out of it. It is especially difficult to run outside zone out of the shotgun, due to the aiming points of the running back. It's generally become a passing-based formation, as the quarterbacks eyes are right away focused on the play ahead. 

In under-center looks, quarterbacks will have to drop back and find their marks in the pocket. A lot of quarterbacks in today's game don't quite have the footwork to adjust to this style of play, and it can throw off the rhythm of a passing game that a shotgun look could give. Shotgun is generally easier to pass out of as it keeps the quarterback facing the defense without having to drop deep in the pocket first. However, under-center offenses are much better suited to the run game, as the back is already moving downhill when he gets the ball and where he's running can be disguised easier. As a result, play-action passing improves significantly under center, given the unpredictability of where the run is going and the added threat of a likely run threat.   

The goal of the pistol is to blend the two in a way that keeps the strengths of shotgun and under center. 

Rams pistol

With the running back aligned behind the quarterback in the pistol, the Rams' offense kept the unpredictability of the under-center run game. The running back is already heading downhill with the handoff and teams can't tee off of his alignment. This formation also keeps the efficiency of the play fake with play-action passes. This formation can also open up the option game, although that's not something the Rams do often with Stafford (look at the Ravens with Lamar Jackson in 2021 and 2022 for examples). 

The pistol also keeps the passing strength of the shotgun passing game, as the quarterback is facing the play the whole way and already aligned away from the line of scrimmage. 

This also gave the Rams the advantage of dictating opposing personnel. Because of the threat of the run game (and the Rams' ability to run the ball), teams met them with five players on the line of scrimmage. Simply creating the threat of the run like this dictates what the opposing team has to do, and the Rams can base their offense from there. Given how well Sean McVay has built concepts to build off of each other and make 25 plays look like 250 different ones, being able to force the opponent to alter their defense in this way opens up their playbook. Add that to Stafford's ability to process defenses quickly and his mastery of the playbook, and the Rams' offense went from potent to downright unstoppable.

How did the Rams use pistol in 2023?

The Rams were able to create plenty of looks out of the pistol last season, however, they had two main run calls out of pistol: Outside zone & duo. 42% of their runs out of pistol were outside zone, while a whopping 54% went to duo. 

This is a unique blend of both phases of Sean McVay's run game. McVay made his mark as an outside zone coach, something that he couldn't run as well while away from the under-center looks he gave Goff. Last year, the Rams ran duo the most in the NFL, and it became their calling card. The Rams shifted away from outside zone to a more power/gap-oriented seemingly overnight last season, adding another wrinkle to McVay's arsenal.

With the pistol, the Rams were able to do both, and do it well. Their 31.9% success rate on these runs out of pistol finished second in the NFL last season. With this ability to unlock more of their run game, the Rams' offense skyrocketed, leading to the increased production they had over the second half of the season. 

What about the passing game? The Rams passed out of pistol on 53 plays last year, mainly using it in quick game passes. Hitches, slants, and outs were the throws they'd use the most here to generate quick, easy yards with defenders out of position having to focus on the run game. This worked, as the Rams boasted the second-highest success rate in the NFL on pistol passing at 47.2%. 

The Rams' pistol usage in 2024

Given how often the Rams deployed pistol down the stretch of 2023, it's a given they will continue to do so in 2024 at a likely increased pace. It's unlikely they'll fully opt into the pistol in a way that resembles a college offense (hello, Kansas Jayhawks), but there are plenty of signs that the Rams bought into this in the offseason. 

I said above the Rams ran pistol the fourth-most in the NFL last season. Number one was the Atlanta Falcons, at 34.4% of their total plays, three times the rate the Rams used it. Why is this significant? The Rams' new quarterbacks coach, Dave Ragone, spent the last three seasons as the Falcons' offensive coordinator. Prior to that, Ragone spent two seasons with the Chicago Bears as the quarterbacks coach under OC Mark Helfrich, a former college offensive coordinator and head coach who ran the pistol at Oregon to great success with Marcus Mariota and spent time learning under Chip Kelly.  

While Ragone wasn't the primary play-caller in Chicago or Atlanta, he was undoubtedly a significant part of their game-planning and had significant input in the offense. Ragone's familiarity with the pistol offense likely played a part in why McVay hired him. As another connection, Ragone played for Greg Roman with the Houston Texans, who used the pistol offense to great effect with Lamar Jackson in his four years as Baltimore's OC. 

Another new hire the Rams made this offseason was Nate Scheelhaase, who became an offensive assistant/pass game specialist after spending 2023 as the offensive coordinator for the Iowa State Cyclones. Scheelhaase spent five years at Iowa State under OC Tom Manning, who ran the pistol plenty, a trend Scheelhaase continued into his play-calling in 2023.

Additionally, new Rams' running back Blake Corum is familiar with the pistol run game. Last year, 17% of Michigan's run plays came out of pistol, placing them 44th in the FBS in total usage. 13.2% of Corum's runs came out of the pistol. While that might not be a majority, it's still a sizeable chunk of his usage. Corum's game-winning touchdown against Alabama in the Rose Bowl came out of a pistol look.

The links continue to add up. Sixth-round rookie wide receiver Jordan Whittington played for head coach Steve Sarkisian at Texas. Sarkisian is a friend of McVay's and is frequently seen around the Rams at summer camps, with him and McVay picking each other's brains often. The Longhorns ran pistol on 17.7% of their plays last season, good for 31st in FBS.

One thing that McVay can take away from Sark is the ability to motion into pistol looks from under-center or shotgun, a nifty twist that Sarkisian has used throughout his time at Texas. Given McVay's penchant for disguising plays, I'd imagine seeing that immediately lit a fire in his eyes.  

All of these dots keep connecting to the same point: The Rams are going to use pistol early and often in 2024. They found their advantage last year, and they can get even more deadly with it in 2024 with their personnel. 

Last season, the Falcons and Dolphins were #1 and #2 in pistol usage. These two offenses were also at or near the top of the league in heavier personnel packages (12,21, 22), something I have alluded to the Rams leaning into more in 2024. For those who don't know what the personnel means, 12 is one running back, two tight ends; 21 is two running backs, one running back, and so on. The San Francisco 49ers used these looks all the time, relying on Kyle Juszczyk's ability as a rusher, receiver, and blocker to keep defenses on their heels. Miami did this with Alec Ingold as their second-back (fullback), but Atlanta's is particularly interesting, given their previously established link through Ragone.

When the Falcons used 21 or 22 personnel looks, they would oftentimes use two running backs instead of a fullback or pseudo-RB. Atlanta would deploy Bijan Robinson, Tyler Allgeier, and Cordarrelle Patterson in the backfield together to create mismatch looks. While it didn't often work for them, largely due to teams not respecting any sort of passing threat, the usage is notable, particularly how the Rams can use it.

The Rams can line up with their 11-personnel 3-WR sets McVay loves while putting both Blake Corum and Kyren Williams on the field together. They have the ability to replace a WR with Colby Parkinson, their best blocking tight end, or Davis Allen to get bigger personnel while still keeping Corum and Williams on the field together. This total flexibility the Rams can operate with offensively lets McVay dictate opposing personnel to create advantages, further enhanced by Stafford's ability as a processor. 

With the personnel they've added in the offseason, the Rams now have true flexibility to attack defenses even better than they could last season. With Puka Nacua gaining another year of experience, Cooper Kupp returning back to (hopefully) full health, and an upgraded offensive line, the Rams' offense feels poised to once again be among the best in the league for the 2024 season, thanks to their newest innovation. 

AJ Schulte

AJ Schulte Photo

AJ Schulte previously was an analyst for Pro Football Network in 2019 before rejoining in September of 2023. He currently resides in Texas and has been producing content since 2018. Prior to his time at PFN, AJ gained experience covering the Denver Broncos with SB Nation’s Mile High Report and as part of the editorial staff with The 33rd Team. He spent time gaining formal scouting experience as part of RPM Data in 2023. AJ holds a Master’s degree in Sports Management from the University of Texas at Austin and is also working on gaining his certification in Sports Law.