How do Teams Spend their 2017 Money?

[SlowGettingUp]

Very interesting chart here:



A couple of observations:

The Pats, with a 55%-45% overall split between offense and defense are pretty much in the middle of the pack. There are a couple of dramatic outliers:

Offense heavy:
Cowboys 66-34
Steelers 65-35

Defense heavy:
Titans 40-60
Jets 41-59
Jaguars 42-58

By position, there is a wide spread among QBs (but there are a bunch of special situations involved). The position with perhaps the most dramatic variation is the DL - there are 6 teams that have more than 26% of their salary going there (headed by the Bucs with 30%), while the Pats currently have only 10% with 5 teams below them. By contrast, the Pats are second from the top on DBs with 26% behind the Rams 29%. The Pats are a bit light on LBs (9%) with the Chiefs very heavy (26%).

By and large the Pats are among the more balanced teams.

And here are a couple of interesting posts showing how each position has fared in free agency:

On offense, guards have done well and RBs have languished:
Free Agency Review: Market Movement on Offense | Over the Cap

And on defense, teams continue to splurge for pass rushers:
Free Agency Review: Market Movement on Defense | Over the Cap

 

[jmt57]

Since the league instituted the rookie salary cap it resulted in teams with highly productive players on rookie contracts in a very favorable position. That is particularly true with positions that command a high salary, such as quarterback or defensive end.

Was that the plan for owners, or an unintended consequence? For the NFLPA do they care that veterans can be cap casualties, replaced by a cheaper player? Or does it not matter since the replacement is also part of their union?

Overall it seems to be for the better. It did not make sense for a bad team that has an early draft pick to be handicapped with a huge contract for an unproven player. If that early pick turned out to be a draft bust it was disastrous for that team. The logic of a draft based on the reverse order of the previous year's standings is to give the bad teams some help. It had reached the point where those first round salaries were doing just the opposite.

When a guy like Russell Wilson comes along and plays well right away it is an immense boost for his team - at least until the club needs to give him a contract extension. Quarterbacks on rookie contracts are bound to skew those numbers.

 

[SlowGettingUp]

For the NFLPA do they care that veterans can be cap casualties, replaced by a cheaper player?

I think this was an unintended consequence. They were trying to improve salaries for vets and didn't fully appreciate that low-end vets would be priced out of the market by high minimum salaries.

Your point about limits on rookie salaries speaks to the Pats' plans for Butler and Garoppolo. Not having a pick in the first two rounds will hurt them from a cap perspective over the next four or five years. The team is clearly much stronger in 2017 with Butler rather than the 32nd pick; but in the out years the reverse is likely true.