Every year, each team must make personnel decisions -- trades, cuts, contract negotiations -- that impact the team's ability to sign talent to hopefully create a Super Bowl Champion. And every year, each team is faced with a limited salary cap, including the dreaded cap penalty, which is limited to $20 million. This 'dead money' of the cap penalty limits a team's ability to spend as freely as it would like.
This begs the questions, which teams are the best at managing the salary cap, and which teams are the worst? More importantly, does a team's ability to manage the salary cap matter all that much in the Win/Loss column?
Over the course of the 2011, 2012, and 2013 seasons, the best teams at managing the salary cap have been the Panthers (with an avg of $.98M cap penalty a year), the Giants ($2.28M), and the Broncos ($2.50M).
The worst? The Texans ($15.72M), the Colts ($16.70M), and the Titans ($17.26M). The average amount of cap penalty for all teams for those three years was $11.02 million. Below are each team's average salary cap penalty over the past three years:
Team Avg
Panthers 0.98
Giants 2.28
Broncos 2.50
Lions 5.89
Browns 7.57
Bears 7.82
Steelers 8.06
Bengals 8.11
Bucs 8.16
Cowboys 9.21
Falcons 9.35
Jaguars 9.91
Eagles 9.95
Raiders 10.68
Saints 10.84
Cardinals 11.43
Ravens 11.50
Chargers 12.00
Patriots 12.68
49ers 13.27
Rams 13.37
Chiefs 13.53
Seahawks 13.94
Jets 14.55
Packers 14.59
Vikings 14.84
Redskins 15.08
Bills 15.22
Dolphins 15.63
Texans 15.72
Colts 16.70
Titans 17.26
But managing the salary cap is all well and good, but we're not in an Accounting League, we're in a Football League. Does success on the bottom line translate into success on the field? The answer is not that clear cut.
Over the past three seasons, the Chargers have been the most successful, winning 38 games. Yet the team is 'below average' in dealing with the cap penalty, averaging $12M a year. The Jets, tied for 4th most wins with 32, average over $14M a year in cap space. Meanwhile, the Broncos, noted above as one of thriftiest clubs, has managed only 17 wins during the previous three seasons.
However, there does appear to be a correlation between fiscal responsibility and winning. The Top Ten teams in wins over the last three years have an average of $9.51M in cap penalty. The Bottom Ten teams, however, have an average cap penalty of $12.33M. Not a huge difference, but perhaps a significant one.
I'm not a big math guy, so if anyone wants the data to do some hardcore regression analysis or figure out the standard deviations and shit, let me know!
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