Pre-snap motion is the NFL's fastest growing schematic trend. It's an evolving microcosm of the game of football, which has endless nuances and information to be gained at any given moment.

There are different types of motion, each of which does something distinct for the offense and to the defense. What type of motion the Rams run depends on their desired purpose for it, and that's one thing Rams head coach Sean McVay has for everything: a purpose.

"We like to say 'we don't motion just to motion because it looks cool,'" said offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur. "We're always trying to gather information, whether it's leverages, whether it's schematic, whatever (it is)."

This season, the Rams have used pre-snap motion at the NFL's highest rate (76.7%), according to NFLverse and FTN data, and they've concocted increasingly creative ways to make motions work to their advantage. Players move all around the formation and don't have to get set pre-snap, which can give them an extra burst off the line. As the trend has grown league-wide, the Rams' usage of it has expanded correspondingly, and for good reason.

Throughout the 2022-2023 seasons, the Rams used pre-snap motion at the third-highest rate in the NFL (55.6%). Over that span, all the statistical evidence shows that they've been more productive on those snaps. Whether it's expected points added (EPA), success rate, or yards per play, the Rams, and many other top teams, have been better off when they utilize motion.

Philosophy

Every motion achieves something specific for the Rams, like helping undress the coverage or create leverage/space in the defense. That's why the Rams' motion rate has increased steadily from 41.6% in 2022 to 67.6% last season, and is now up almost 10% again in 2024. The Rams' success rates on motion plays have increased accordingly (success is achieved on each play with positive EPA, which measures the success of a specific play relative to historical expectations).

"I think we motion for multiple different reasons," quarterback Matthew Stafford told theRams.com. "Whether it's to try to created leverage, create communication from the defense, matchups, whatever it is, each play kind of has its own reasoning as to why we do it, but it is definitely something that we take pride in and doing it well and doing it crisp and sharp and all that kind of stuff to use it for our advantage."

The Rams have terms for each type of motion, and Stafford said it's a "day one" task for offensive players to learn the function and execution of each.

"It's not arbitrary as to 'hey, make this one be like this,'" Stafford told theRams.com. "There's a word for it and those guys understand that – they take that to heart."

"When you're motioning, there's a lot of detail that goes into those motions per-play that a lot of people probably don't know," LaFleur said. "They're just seeing a guy going across, ball snaps and you go from there, but it's not that easy."

That understanding – of the function and correct execution of pre-snap motions – between the offensive players and coaches is what makes the Rams so successful in that context. In 2024, Los Angeles is averaging 1.4 more yards per play and its success rate is 8.0% higher (48.6%) when pre-snap motion is deployed.

"That'll always be a staple that there's an intent behind why we're trying to do it and it takes selfless players to be able to execute it at a high level," McVay said.

The most basic information to be gained from pre-snap motion is whether the defense is in man or zone coverage. If a player motions from one side to the other and a defender goes with him, it's likely a man coverage scheme. If not, it's likely a zone.

Even if a receiver doesn't go all the way across, making it look as though he might starts that chain reaction. Every motion can "give you some tips and tells," said wide receiver Cooper Kupp, to help players gather information or leverage that wouldn't be present on a static play.

"Just being full speed (is how you sell it), because you got motions where you're going all the way across, you've got short motions, so just making everything look the same, that's kind of the goal there," wide receiver Jordan Whittington told theRams.com.

Motion can also be used to put players in position to make key blocks in the run and pass game, as Kupp did on the game-winning touchdown pass against the Seahawks.

The defensive communication that often transpires on those plays can help dissect what specific coverage, within man or zone, is being run and how each receiver will be treated. That's not exclusive to the Rams' offense, but is still a staple of their scheme.

Here are just a few of the questions that go through Stafford and his receivers' minds on pass plays, which motion can help answer:

"Is (the defender) gonna stay here? Is he gonna lock? Are they gonna man up? Is he zoning it off? Is he gonna pass off once I become number one? Is he gonna lock on me if I stay number two?" wide receiver Puka Nacua said on The Mina Kimes Show this past week. "... It's something that we work on really, really hard during the week because it's not easy trying to time it up and to make everything look the way we want it to.

"As a receiver who lives and thrives off leverage, that's something that coach McVay creates in this offense with all the different moving parts we have."

Execution

On the Rams' second offensive play of Week 9's Thursday Night Football game against the Vikings, Kupp went on an "orbit" motion behind Stafford from left to right. Cornerback Stephon Gilmore and safety Harrison Smith both immediately stepped back and toward Kupp's motion, almost subconsciously.

As the ball was snapped, Stafford looked toward Kupp as if he was throwing a screen pass to him with three blockers in front. Instead, he flipped his hips and threw a screen to Nacua, who was alone on the left side. Every offensive lineman apart from left tackle Alaric Jackson sold to the right.

Jackson, meanwhile, came barreling toward Gilmore and finished an athletic block, helped by Gilmore's reactionary backward step. Kupp's motion gave Nacua room to run for a first down by creating leverage for both Jackson and Nacua.

Not every player is asked to motion for the same reasons, however. The Rams have utilized wide receiver Tutu Atwell's speed advantageously as the motion man with significant results, as he ranks third in the NFL in receiving yards when he's put in motion (266), via Next Gen Stats.

"Tutu's a very smart dude," LaFleur said. "... Yeah, we're doing that because he can fly off the ball and getting him that access, but he also understands how to do it and why we're doing it."

Earlier this season, one of the Rams' biggest plays was made as a product of pre-motion: Atwell's 50-yard catch against the 49ers, which set up the game-tying score. Motioning from left-to-right gave him some extra momentum to blow past veteran cornerback Charvarius Ward. Atwell cut slightly upfield to exploit Ward's positioning after starting on an angle toward the sideline – Stafford saw the one-on-one matchup and heaved it downfield.

"Once the DB was (playing) out(side) leverage, I already knew (where it was going)," Atwell said.

The motion was impactful here for multiple reasons. First off, Stafford recognized the zone when Atwell motioned across without a corner shadowing him, which backed Ward off the line of scrimmage and toward the sideline. As the play developed, Brown pointed behind Ward, indicating that he was responsible for that deep third of the field. Without the motion, that physical cue may not have been necessary.

Atwell's burst of speed out of his motions helped him beat the defense all over the field against San Francisco.

The Rams' injury-induced personnel changes didn't alter their offensive philosophy, just the purpose of specific motions to fit their personnel. That identity is part of what makes L.A.'s scheme so dangerous, and with Kupp and Nacua back, the offense has returned to peak form ahead of a primetime matchup versus Miami.

McVay's offense is extremely complicated. Every offensive player needs to understand the explicit objective of each motion, and that takes time. In fact, Stafford said it took him a while to adjust to it after playing "static football" in Detroit for so long. But once he understood the "why" and the "how" of it all, everything fell into place.

"It was one of the more challenging things for me to really get a hold of and own when I got here because there are so many different types and so many different terms, little different nuances to all the different motions and shifts," Stafford told theRams.com. "So it was something that was new and it was a challenge, but I understand how we like to use it and it's an advantage for us for sure."