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Doug Pederson and Andy Reid: similar offense, slightly different approaches

Doug Pederson used two- and three-tight end sets on more than 41 percent of the Eagles' offensive plays last season.

Eagles head coach Doug Pederson (left) watches practice.
Eagles head coach Doug Pederson (left) watches practice.Read more(David Maialetti/Staff Photographer)

No coach has had more of an influence on Doug Pederson than Andy Reid.

Pederson played for him in Green Bay (when Reid was the Packers' quarterbacks coach in 1997 and '98) and Philadelphia (started nine games for the Eagles in Reid's first season in '99).

He was on Reid's Eagles coaching staff from 2009 through 2012, and was his offensive coordinator in Kansas City for three years before getting hired as the Eagles' head coach.

They both run fairly similar versions of the West Coast offense. Similar, but not exact.

An examination of the Eagles' personnel groupings over the last six years illustrate some of the differences in the formation preferences of Pederson and Reid, as well as Chip Kelly, who coached the team from 2013 until getting fired in 2015.

Pederson used "11'' personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WRs) 56.3 percent of the time last season and "12'' personnel (1 RB, 2 TEs, 2 WRs) 29.4 percent.

During his final two seasons with the Eagles, Reid used "11'' only 48.6 percent of the time and "12'' just 22.2 percent.

Reid was a little bit more diversified in the personnel groupings he used compared to Pederson. Pederson essentially used just three personnel packages last season – "11'', "12'' and "13'' (1 RB, 3 TEs, 1 WR). He used "13'' on 115 of the Eagles' 1,080 offensive plays, or 10.7 percent.

He didn't use any other personnel grouping more than 11 times, and used two-back sets only 28 times all year (2.6 percent).

In 2011-12, Reid used six different personnel groupings on at least 3 percent of the Eagles' offensive plays. Besides "11'' and "12,'' he used "21'' (2 RBs, 1 TE, 2 WRs) 12.3 percent of the time, "10'' (1 RB, 0 TEs, 4 WRs) 5.7 percent, "20'' (2 RBs, 0 TEs, 3 WRs) 4.4 percent and "22'' (2 RBs, 2 TEs, 1 WR) 3 percent.

Reid was bullish on two-back sets, using them on 390 of 1,976 plays (19.7 percent) his final two seasons with the Eagles.

Kelly used "11'' and "12'' personnel groupings almost exclusively during his three seasons as the Eagles' head coach. He used "11'' 69.2 percent of the time and "12" 27.6 percent.

The only other personnel grouping he used more than a handful of times in a season was "21'' (2 RBs, 1 TE, 2 WRs), which he used 23 times in 2014 and 31 times in 2015.

With three excellent pass-catching tight ends – Zach Ertz, Trey Burton, and Brent Celek — the Eagles threw a lot out of multiple-tight-end sets last season. Pederson used two or three tight ends on more than 41 percent of the Eagles' offensive plays.

They threw the ball 62 percent of the time (197 of 318 plays) out of "12'' personnel packages (1 RB, 2 TEs), though not very effectively.

Carson Wentz had a 64.7 passer rating out of "12,'' completing just 57.1 percent of his passes and throwing four touchdown passes and seven of his 14 interceptions.

He was much more effective throwing out "13'' (1 RB, 3 TEs), which usually is a run-oriented personnel package that compels defenses to play their base package. Wentz completed 30 of 39 passes and threw four TDs and just one interception and had a 120.8 passer rating in "13.''

Kelly used three-tight-end sets just 20 times in three seasons. Reid didn't use them a single time in his last two years with the Eagles.

Primarily because of the lack of depth at wide receiver, Pederson used four-wide-receiver sets sparingly last year — just 11 times. Reid used them 146 times in 2011-12, or on 7.4 percent of the Eagles' offensive snaps.

Kelly seldom employed four wideouts. He used four-wide-receiver sets just 11 times in three years.