Notre Dame faces a strategic offseason decision: Will it build its 2026 offense around the NFL’s multi-tight end trend?

Notre Dame is entering the 2026 football season with a pointed offensive question: will offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock lean into a specific NFL trend that has been spreading rapidly, the multi-tight end, bigger-body approach often referred to by personnel groupings like 12 and 13 sets. The idea is not merely to add bodies. It is to use larger tight ends to force defensive players and coverages to do more work, creating passing-game leverage even when the offense is in “run-friendly” formations.

The basic premise being discussed in the lead-up to 2026 is that the NFL’s current evolution is cyclical but accelerating. As defenses adjust to space and speed, offensive play callers have found value in building packages that look heavier than the protection and routes they are actually running. In the same way that offenses routinely borrow concepts from recent NFL success, the thinking is that college programs will at least partially mirror what is working in the pros.

In that conversation, the Rams are frequently used as a reference point. Recent reporting highlighted how Los Angeles leaned into both two- and three-tight end personnel groupings and used them in ways that went beyond simple downhill running. The emphasis was on creating matchup advantages: bigger tight ends against defenses that may be smaller or more vulnerable in space, while still keeping the offense dynamic enough to attack through the air.

Notre Dame’s counterpoint, at least as framed by the offseason discussion, is personnel alignment. The program is viewed as having the talent to attempt the concept without forcing unnatural scheming. That matters because multi-tight end football only looks clean on paper if the tight ends can both win as targets and operate as reliable pieces of pass protection and route running. If those elements are present, it gives a coordinator more freedom to vary tempo, motion the strength, and stress coverage rules.

Denbrock’s role adds additional weight to the decision. As Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator, he is the connective tissue between how the roster is deployed and how the system asks players to execute. If the coaching staff believes its tight ends can consistently function in both spacing and congestion, it can build a package identity that does not rely on a single standout skill player. That is a meaningful shift, especially for an offense that wants to keep defenses guessing about whether each formation is a run cue, a play-action setup, or a passing mismatch.

Still, college football is not the NFL, and the translation is never automatic. The NFL trend described in recent coverage centers on how offenses reverse-engineer defensive personnel, then attach protection and route concepts to the resulting matchup. In college, the same look can trigger different reaction rules, and the mismatch may not appear against every opponent on the schedule. The practical test for Notre Dame will be whether these concepts produce advantages consistently enough to justify the roster and practice time that comes with running heavier personnel groups.

What to watch next is how the offense organizes its formation choices during fall camp and the first live evaluations of 2026. If Notre Dame’s early reps show frequent use of multiple-tight end groupings on both downs, and if the passing game sustains production when defenses treat those packages as run-heavy, it would indicate the coaching staff is prepared to embrace the trend rather than treat it as a situational add-on. If the concepts are scaled back quickly, it may suggest the staff likes the idea but needs a different mix of personnel roles to make it work week after week.

Overall, the storyline is not that Notre Dame is changing its identity overnight. It is that the program appears positioned to explore an offensive wrinkle that is spreading through the sport. The more the 2026 offense reflects that heavier, mismatch-forward approach, the more it can shape how opponents prepare, how the Irish manage game plans, and what kind of ceiling they can play toward over a full season.