By: GreyMan74 | Category: Film Room Breakdown
Target Archetypes: Y / U / H | Reading Time: 6 min read
1. The Y, U, and H: Why Modern Scouting Is Ditching Simple Rankings
The old "Top 10 Tight End" list is dead. Ranking Sam Roush against Kenyon Sadiq in the same column is like comparing a pulling guard to a wide receiver—they don't play the same game. At 13Personnel.com, the 13-Score is built specifically to kill that lazy comparison. It's a percentile-driven classification system that self-calibrates across seasons to avoid threshold fragility, meaning a 60th-percentile U-type in 2024 is still a 60th-percentile U-type in 2026. Evaluate players within their archetype, not across them.
Here's how the scoring logic breaks down by role:
- Y (Inline / Traditional): Formation anchors. The Y-Score weights
catch_pct(35%) andrec_first_downs(15%) heaviest. These are your chain-movers with their hand in the dirt—Sam Roush (Bears) and Oscar Delp (Giants) are the 2026 benchmarks. - U (Move / Flex): Mismatch hunters. The U-Score runs on
adot(30%) andrec_ypr(30%)—vertical volume stats. Kenyon Sadiq and Eli Stowers are the gold standards; both are genuinely more dangerous on vertical routes than most NFL wide receivers. - H (Hybrid / H-Back): Backfield sniffer, wing blocker, leak release. Guys like Josh Cuevas (Ravens) and Riley Nowakowski (Steelers) don't rack up targets—they control the structural integrity of every heavy-personnel look.
When a player's metrics don't clearly place him, the pipeline defaults Y > U > H, keeping the scouting profile conservative. Don't dress a wing blocker up as a vertical seam threat on paper.
2. The 13-Personnel Revolution: The Rams' Red Zone Masterclass
"Heavy" used to mean predictable. Not anymore.
The Los Angeles Rams ran 13 personnel on 36.8% of their red-zone snaps last season—against a league average of 6.7%. That's not a formation tendency; that's a schematic identity. By flooding the box with Y, U, and H alignments simultaneously, they force the defense into a decision: match with linebackers and get out-athleted in space, or match with a sub-package and get out-leveraged in the run game.
The numbers back it up:
- 48.1% rushing success rate in 13 personnel keeps defenses honest.
- 57.6% passing success rate shows what happens when they commit to stopping the run.
- 0.28 EPA per pass attempt on play-action ranks 5th in the NFL.
"It's gone from a more defensive and conservative formation to a dynamic, offensive one, all while maintaining its run/pass splits."
— Ray Carpenter, The Spade
This is the future of 13 personnel. Not goal-line plunges—schematic conflict generation.
3. The Athletic Ceiling: Kenyon Sadiq and the 2026 Projection Record
Most athletic combine profiles are noise. Kenyon Sadiq's is not.
The Oregon product posted the highest "Travis System" projection score for a tight end prospect since the model launched in 2001. That's 25 years of data, and nobody touched it.
| Metric | Result | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| 40-Yard Dash | 4.39s | 98th |
| Vertical Jump | 43.5" | 99th |
| Broad Jump | 11' 1" | 98th |
At those numbers, Sadiq doesn't create separation—he creates distance. Safeties have to honor his vertical at the snap, which is exactly what opens the U-type seam lanes for inside receivers. The conflict he generates pre-catch is the point.
One variable: Sadiq is managing offseason hernia surgery and has missed reps in camp. He's listed TE2 behind Mason Taylor in New York. His explosive play rate sits at 22.4%, but Week 1 snaps are the thing to watch. The ceiling is historic; the timeline just needs to be respected.
4. The Iron Man vs. the Gold Standard: Otton and Kittle
Two different arguments for the same position.
Cade Otton (Buccaneers) is the NFL's most-used tight end, full stop. 3,716 offensive snaps over four seasons is the highest total at the position in that window—and his 87.5% snap rate edges out George Kittle's 86.6%. He's a three-down Y-type doing everything right: 71.3 PFF pass-blocking grade (6th among TEs in 2025), consistent route-running, reliable hands. You don't talk about Otton because he doesn't make ESPN highlights. You talk about Otton because he's on the field every single play.
George Kittle is the efficiency argument. Coming back from a torn Achilles, he's still PFF's No. 1 ranked tight end. Three straight seasons finishing at the top of their TE grades. Five total across a nine-year career.
"Kittle is currently the gold standard when it comes to the tight end position. In 2025, he paced all tight ends in PFF grade (90.7) for the third-straight season and fifth time in his nine-year career."
— PFF
Otton survives on volume. Kittle wins on efficiency. Both are right. The real conversation is: which model does your roster need?
5. The "De Facto WR2" Reality: Okonkwo and Likely
The boundary between tight end production and wide receiver usage is gone.
In Washington, Chig Okonkwo is operating as the team's functional WR2 behind Terry McLaurin. That's not a projection—that's the depth chart reality. And in New York, Isaiah Likely has built genuine chemistry with Jaxson Dart in camp, positioning himself as the primary secondary option behind Malik Nabers.
For fantasy, the shift is this: stop looking for the "late-round TD-dependent Y-type blocker" play. High-volume U-archetypes absorbing WR2 target shares are the scarce resource. Okonkwo and Likely are the 2026 examples of what happens when a coordinator decides their best receiver just happens to wear an 80-number jersey.
Film Room Takeaways
- The 13 Personnel floor is rising. The Rams running 37% of red-zone snaps in 13 personnel isn't an outlier—it's a preview. Expect that number to spread league-wide as more coordinators realize the defensive matching conflicts it creates.
- Athletic floor for the U-type is climbing fast. Sadiq's 4.39 speed puts pressure on every U-type below a 4.55 to justify their roster spot. Sub-4.55 isn't elite anymore—it's baseline for a move TE in 2026.
- The H-Back is the unsung multiplier. Cuevas and Nowakowski aren't getting fantasy points, but they're the reason 13-personnel looks don't tip the play pre-snap. The H-type's value lives in what it forces the defense to not do.
The 13th Man Verdict
Usage of 11 personnel dropped to 56.3% in 2025—the lowest rate since 2015. Defenses are responding by matching with four defensive backs on 58% of 12-personnel snaps, up from 50% a few years ago. The chess match is accelerating.
The response? Either go heavier with 13 and 23 personnel, or deploy U-types who make the defense pay for using sub-packages. Either way, the generic tight end—the guy who's "pretty good" at everything—is the first guy cut. The specialist era is here. Learn the archetypes or get left behind watching the wrong player.