The Rise of 12 and 13 Personnel: Sam Roush Will Be the Most Impactful Bears Rookie

If there is anything we learned from the NFL Draft, it’s that the best-laid plans of draft pundits and casual mock drafters mean very little to the people running NFL draft rooms during those three days in April.

Heading into the 2026 NFL Draft, many believed the Bears’ biggest priority was upgrading the defense, specifically at safety, defensive tackle, and edge. Most mock drafts leading up to the event had Chicago targeting those positions heavily through the first three rounds. And with four picks inside the top 100, the Bears had plenty of opportunities to add impact talent.

The Bears did make the obvious move at pick No. 25 when Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman fell into their laps. But the next three selections caught many by surprise. First came Iowa center Logan Jones, followed by Stanford tight end Sam Roush. Then LSU wide receiver Zavion Thomas rounded out the Bears’ first four picks.

One defensive player. Three offensive players.

And while it surprised me too at first, I started to understand the thought process once I took a step back. Logan Jones was viewed by many as the most pro-ready, and possibly the best, center in the draft. With the abrupt retirement of Drew Dalman during the offseason, finding a long-term answer at center quickly became a real need.

Zavion Thomas brings blazing 4.28 speed and versatility that allows him to line up almost anywhere on offense, while also adding true home-run ability in the return game. And Sam Roush was widely regarded as one of the best inline tight ends in the country, offering relentless down-to-down blocking ability with real upside as a pass catcher.

The more I looked into Roush specifically, the more convinced I became that he could end up being the most impactful rookie addition to the 2026 Bears roster. A lot of that comes down to how much 12 and 13 personnel packages continue to grow in importance across the modern NFL, especially after the shortcomings the Bears had at TE3 throughout the 2025 season.

The proliferation of 12 and 13 personnel in the NFL

If you’re not familiar with the terminology, 12 and 13 personnel are numerical designations for offensive packages. 12 personnel refers to a formation with 1 running back, 2 tight ends, and 2 wide receivers, while 13 personnel features 1 running back, 3 tight ends, and 1 wide receiver. These groupings are generally considered “heavier” sets because they feature as many, or more, tight ends than wide receivers, often signaling an offense’s intention to run the football.

So why has the NFL suddenly started leaning so heavily into these personnel groupings?

About half a decade ago, defenses began shifting toward faster base nickel looks to counter the rise of spread offenses led by mobile quarterbacks. Think offenses led by Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Lamar Jackson, all of whom won MVP awards while spearheading offenses built around spacing, tempo, and athletic mismatches.

Those offenses attacked traditional 4-3 and 3-4 defenses with speed. Mobile quarterbacks forced linebackers into impossible situations as runners and improvisers, while explosive receivers stretched zones that linebackers simply could not cover quickly enough. In response, defenses got smaller and faster by living in nickel personnel.

But every chess move has a counter.

The modern NFL tight end has become the perfect answer to those lighter defensive packages. Today’s tight ends are big and physical enough to hold up as frontline blockers against defensive linemen, edge rushers, and linebackers, while still being athletic enough to create massive size mismatches against smaller nickel defenders in coverage.

And the league-wide trends back that up.

In 2022, the highest 12 personnel usage rate in the NFL belonged to the Green Bay Packers at just 29.88%, with only 12 teams using 12 personnel on more than 20% of their offensive snaps. Meanwhile, the Tennessee Titans led the NFL in 13 personnel usage at only 15.02%, and just seven teams in the league used 13 personnel at a rate above 7%.

Fast forward to 2025, and the numbers exploded.

The Cleveland Browns used 12 personnel on 41.17% of their snaps, while 18 offenses across the league cleared the 20% mark. The Los Angeles Rams ran nearly one-third of all offensive plays out of 13 personnel at an absurd 30.48% rate, and eight teams finished above the 7% threshold.

The Rams, in particular, became the blueprint.

Los Angeles ran nearly 40% of its offensive snaps in 2025 with at least two tight ends on the field and finished as the league’s top scoring offense, while Matthew Stafford won his first MVP award at age 37. And every sign points toward the Rams leaning into those personnel groupings even more in 2026 after selecting Ohio State tight end Max Klare in the second round of the draft.

That made it back-to-back years the Rams spent a second-round pick on a tight end, despite already having four different tight ends log over 400 snaps during the 2025 season. Even with all of that existing depth and usage, they still prioritized the position early in the draft.

The Chicago Bears were not far behind the Rams in tight end usage, although they leaned more heavily into 12 personnel than 13 personnel, largely because they lacked the tight end depth needed to consistently operate from heavier packages. Even so, the Bears still ran 13 personnel at the fourth-highest rate in the NFL in 2025 at 8.79%, while ranking sixth in 12 personnel usage at 35.54%. (Personnel usage numbers courtesy of Sumer Sports)

And the efficiency was there too.

The Bears finished with the 10th-best passing offense out of 13 personnel by EPA per pass, while ranking eighth in total EPA generated out of 12 personnel looks.

Then came the 2026 draft.

A total of 21 tight ends were selected, including nine within the top 100 picks.

The writing is on the wall. The tight end is becoming the NFL’s next evolution of the wildcat, not as a gimmick, but as the newest way offenses are forcing defenses into impossible matchups.

Ben Johnson and the usage of Tight Ends

Perhaps it’s no secret that Ben Johnson loves tight ends.

Back in 2011, Johnson served as the tight ends coach at Boston College before making the jump to the NFL. By 2015, he was working with the Miami Dolphins as both an assistant quarterbacks coach and tight ends coach. He later made his way to the Detroit Lions, where he spent the 2020 and 2021 seasons coaching tight ends before emerging as one of the league’s premier offensive coordinators under Dan Campbell in 2022.

Lions tight end Sam LaPorta has credited Johnson as a major reason Detroit selected the former Iowa product in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft. Since then, LaPorta has gone on to record 186 receptions for 2,104 yards and 20 touchdowns, including a 10-touchdown rookie season that earned him Pro Bowl honors.

Two seasons later, Johnson once again played a major role in the selection of an elite tight end prospect, this time with Michigan’s Colston Loveland. Despite Tyler Warren widely being viewed as the top tight end in the class, Loveland put together a fantastic rookie season, hauling in 58 receptions for 713 yards and six touchdowns. Not only was he the most productive rookie tight end in 2025, but he also finished among the league’s most productive pass catchers overall.

Not only did Colston Loveland produce in the passing game, he also more than held his own as a blocker. Loveland finished as PFF’s 12th-highest graded tight end in run blocking in 2025, posting a strong 70.0 grade, the best mark among all rookie tight ends with at least 250 blocking snaps.

Not to be outdone, Cole Kmet quietly turned in a very solid season himself, finishing 35th in run blocking and 24th in pass blocking among 87 qualified tight ends in 2025.

And when you look at Ben Johnson’s history as a play caller, the trend becomes impossible to ignore.

Every season Johnson has called plays in the NFL, outside of 2022, his offenses have used 12 personnel at a rate above 21%. And that tendency only ramped up once he arrived in Chicago.

In 2025, 17 of the Bears’ 19 total games featured combined 12 and 13 personnel usage rates above 35%. The only two exceptions were the Week 6 win against the Washington Commanders and the Week 8 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

This is not a situational wrinkle in Johnson’s offense anymore. It is the foundation of it, and a tonal shift the entire NFL is preparing for.

The addition of Sam Roush to the equation

So how does Sam Roush fit into all of this? Let’s start with a fantastic dive into a breakdown by Josh Norris at Underdog Football:

Now, if you don’t want to spend the 10 minutes watching him, let me provide some Cliffs Notes:

• Considered a plug-and-play “Y” (in-line) tight end. He is described as a tough, 260+ pound blocker capable of handling zone and combo blocks.
• Projects as a perfect fit for Ben Johnson’s offense because of his versatility as both a receiving threat and an in-line blocker, giving the Bears flexibility in heavy personnel packages.
• Roush’s blocking ability may be his most NFL-ready trait. He consistently seals edges, finishes plays physically, and adds value in the run game, which is critical for Chicago’s increased use of 12 and 13 personnel.
• His Stanford tape also shows reliable hands, red-zone usefulness, and the ability to exploit soft spots in coverage, making him a balanced offensive weapon.
• High football IQ and technical polish, particularly his route timing, leverage understanding, and awareness against zone defenses. Those traits make him a strong fit in a timing-based passing attack.
• His competitive background and leadership qualities are repeatedly noted as major positives. As a Stanford captain with strong work ethic and toughness, he is viewed as the type of culture fit NFL coaching staffs value highly.
• Roush’s presence could unlock more creative formations for the Bears offense, especially alongside Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland (or both). Defenses may struggle matching personnel when both, or all three, tight ends can block and catch effectively.

Replacing Durham Smythe, who finished as PFF’s lowest-graded tight end in 2025, with Sam Roush should only further unlock what this offense is capable of becoming.

With third-year quarterback Caleb Williams leading the offense, Colston Loveland already emerging as one of the league’s premier tight ends, and Cole Kmet giving the Bears one of the NFL’s strongest TE2 options, adding a plug-and-play tight end like Roush has the potential to elevate this offense in ways that will not always show up directly in the box score. Allowing Ben Johnson much more flexibility with sub packages without the fear in level of play fall off.

His impact will also come through cleaner run fits, more efficient play-action opportunities, improved pass protection flexibility, or simply forcing defenses to stay in heavier personnel packages they no longer want to play against. That is the value modern tight ends bring to offenses built around 12 and 13 personnel.

And if the Chicago Bears finish 2026 as a top-five offensive unit, don’t be surprised if Sam Roush ends up being one of the biggest reasons why.

Gary Baugher Jr. is a 2nd year contributor to WCG, bringing football insight backed by over 16 years of experience in organized football and more than 30 years as a passionate fan of the game. You can follow him on Twitter at @iamcogs.