Chiefs Paying $14 Million Per Win

by Chris Thorman on Jun 30, 2009 7:27 AM CDT in 2009 Kansas City Chiefs Offseason

Team	Dollars, in millions	Wins/5 Seasons	$ Spent Per Win	Playoff Wins
1. Cowboys	$566.89	46	$12.3	0
2. Seahawks	$552.42	45	$12	4
3. Redskins	$547.37	38	$14.4	1
4. Colts	$532.77	63	$8.5	5
5. Vikings	$526.87	41	$12.9	1
6. Texans	$522.23	31	$16.8	0
7. Saints	$518.49	36	$14.4	1
8. Steelers	$516.69	56	$9.2	8
9. Panthers	$516.09	45	$11.5	2
10. Patriots	$513.31	63	$8.1	8
11. Raiders	$513.21	20	$25.6	0
12. Ravens	$507.05	44	$11.5	2
13. Browns	$506.43	28	$18.1	0
14. Cardinals	$505.30	33	$15.3	3
15. Lions	$505.04	21	$24	0
16. Jets	$502.53	37	$13.6	1
17. Rams	$502.08	27	$18.6	1
18. Dolphins	$500.56	31	$16.1	0
19. Giants	$497.63	47	$10.6	4
20. Eagles	$495.75	46	$10.8	5
21. Bears	$495.57	45	$11	2
22. Falcons	$493.07	41	$12	1
23. Bengals	$491.06	38	$12.9	0
24. 49ers	$486.40	25	$19.5	0
25. Chargers	$485.46	54	$8.99	3
26. Broncos	$485.40	47	$10.3	1
27. Bills	$493.71	35	$14.1	0
28. Jaguars	$480.06	45	$10.7	1
29. Titans	$465.29	40	$11.6	0
30. Packers	$457.16	41	$11.1	1
31. Chiefs	$451.58	32	$14.1	0
32. Bucs	$449.00	38	$11.8	0

The chart above ranks all 32 NFL teams in total money paid out to players from 2004-2008 - that's salaries and bonuses.

We got the original money numbers from NFL.com and I went ahead and added in the wins over the last five seasons (And now that I look more, NFL.com already did that too), money spent per win and finally playoff wins from 2004-2008.

After the jump, I check out the good, the bad and the ugly of spending money in the NFL over the last five years.

The Good

I know you guys are going to kill me on this (don't shoot the messenger) but the San Diego Chargers are one of the most efficient teams when it comes to churning out wins for the lowest cost possible. The Chargers $8.99 million spent per win is third only behind the Colts and the Patriots.San Diego also has the fourth highest win total from '04 to '08.

I know, I know. I hate talking about it too. But you have to give it to the Chargers - they're smart about when and where they spend their money.

And who else would you expect to be on this list? The Patriots, Colts and Steelers of course. All three teams spent less than $10 million per win and have twenty-one playoff wins combined.

The Eagles and Giants are another pair of standouts. Despite spending about the sam eamount per win as the Jaguars and Broncos, Philly and New York have nine combined playoff wins compared to the former's two combined playoff wins. The Eagles and Giants are spending approximately the same amount of money as the Jags and Broncos and getting much better results.

The Bad

For the Chiefs, it's a sad situation with a caveat - we didn't spend a ton of money compared to the rest of the league!

Those that did spend without success - Dallas, Washington, Houston - really should be embarrassed. With one combined playoff win, those three teams made up three of the top six highest spending franchises. For nearly $100 million more than the Chiefs, the Redskins got six more wins.

The Ugly

The Oakland Raiders and the Detroit Lions really are in a league of their own when it comes to spending money on crap. Both teams are over $24 million per win in the last five years, an absolutely atrocious number compared to the rest of the league. Stats like this really confirm what we've known all along - Al Davis and Matt Millen really have no freakin' clue what they were doing.

Take a look at the numbers and let us know what you think.

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Comments

money obviously doesn't buy happiness

And in the case of some of the teams, hasn’t even made misery any more fun. I guess this really points out the need to build a team, and pay your stars well, but don’t try to go buy stars to build your team.

Chiefs go 9-7. LJ makes 1400 yards. DBowe makes 1200 yards. Defense #18.

by Zodeman on Jun 30, 2009 8:33 AM CDT reply actions

interesting stat

then again…all the losses were free and a few of them were rather exciting except for the outcome. Maybe if they’d lose all their games, the Chiefs wouldn’t have to pay anything. j/k

It would be interesting to see the inverse…how much are they paying per loss. The team that pays the most per loss is the best team?

by alsi on Jun 30, 2009 10:50 AM CDT reply actions

meaningless stat

In my humble opinion, this stat doesn’t mean much when you’re looking at a rebuilding team that has gone through 2 coaching changes, and turned over the whole roster a couple of times in 5 years.

It’s well documented that the Chiefs only won 6 games in the last 2 years. No matter how low your payroll is, that’s going to drive up your “millions per win” figure.

Before that, this was a team with a bunch of overpriced veterans that was mediocre. That also leads to a high number on this statistic.

I don’t mean to insult your work, Chris, it’s a good post.
I’m just not convinced that this number tells us much of anything about the Chiefs at this point.

by stagdsp on Jun 30, 2009 1:05 PM CDT reply actions