Creativity With The Cap = Winning?

[Essex Johnson]

(09-04-2018, 02:16 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: It seems year after year, the Bengals find ways to front-load deals so they can get close to the cap, while the good teams are finding ways to manage the cap so that they can stuff as much talent onto their team as possible.

Turns out, it's true.

Top combined average salaries on an active roster:

1. #Jaguars, $220M
2. #Vikings, $209M
3. #Rams, $200M
4. #Bears, $194M
5. #Packers, $191M

30. #Seahawks, $143M
31. #Ravens, $140M
32. #Bills, $122M

Full List: https://t.co/mz9xCO0k27

— Spotrac (@spotrac) September 4, 2018

Bengals are 24th on that list with a Total AAV of $160.4m.

Of the 10 Playoff teams in 2017, 5 of them were in the Top 10. The Steelers were 11th and Falcons 13th, so 7 in the top 13. Neither of the two 9-7 AFC Wildcard teams were in the Top 10.

It seems the good teams just find a way to work the cap space so that they can stuff the most talented players onto a team. It probably comes from having a professional GM and FO.

Keep in mind that the 2017 salary cap was set at $167m, and the Super Bowl winning Eagles had an AAV of $201.3m last year. The AFC winning Patriots had an AAV of $191m.


If you look at the NFC and AFC Championship games, of the 4 teams playing in it (Eagles, Vikings, Patriots, Jaguars) that is 3 of the Top 4 teams on that list. The Vikings were the outlier at 17th, and they got absolutely crushed by the Eagles (the Vikings are now 2nd in 2018 with $209.3m).

coming from my experience in a profession that is driven by data i tend to ignore limited data cycles.. give me a good 5 to 10 years of data that supports your thesis... not saying it might not be a strong thesis but just not enough data to support it.