The NFL Salary Cap and the Kansas City Chiefs
Warning: This post is basically all statistics. If that’s not your thing, please feel free to move on to one of the other very insightful posts here at Arrowhead Addict.
Alright, over the past few weeks we have spent a lot of time looking at Clark Hunt and the job he has done as the owner of our beloved Kansas City Chiefs. I did a piece last week that broke down a few different viewpoints you could have. Big Matt has a great piece up which voices his problems with Clark. Finally, our main man Patrick Allen has put out several pieces (and a poll) detailing the heat he is taking over pay cuts and layoffs within the organization.
As people put together their own opinions on this situation (which is really what AA is all about, giving you a wide variety of opinions and information so you can come to your own conclusion), I thought it might be good to provide you with some hard numbers dating back about a decade. After the break I’ll give you the salary cap number, the highest team payroll, the lowest team payroll, the Chiefs payroll, the Chiefs rank in spending, and the Chiefs record for each year dating back to the 2000 season. These numbers will show you the Chiefs spending habits and how (if at all) they affected their record. It should also give you a glimpse into the overall spending trends in the NFL, which is relevant in this time of CBA negotiations. I’ll share a few thoughts at the end, but mostly I just wanted to provide you with this information.
Alright, I have included all the information I listed above in the chart below.
I know that chart is a little hard to read, for a clearer copy click on this: NFL Payrolls
Like in my previous post, I got most of the team payroll numbers from USA Today, except for this last year’s which I got here. I got the overall NFL Salary Cap numbers from Wikipedia. If those numbers aren’t accurate, I apologize.
So what do I get from those numbers? Well, overall the NFL salary numbers have about doubled from the year 2000. Now I’m sure the owners side of the argument would use that to say that salaries are growing out of control, but my guess is that if you could see the amount of money the league is making over that time span that it has probably doubled as well (that is pure speculation on my part). From a Chiefs standpoint you can see that the team was around the middle of the pack up until the last few years. I discussed the possible reasons for this decrease last week (see the link in the intro). I also would like to point out that the spending does not seem to have a direct impact on the record. The Chiefs had four winning seasons in that span and in those seasons their payroll ranked 18th, 12th, 26th, and 30th. On the flip side, the two highest ranking Chiefs payrolls (2000 and 2007) finished with losing records (7-9 and 4-12). So addicts, you make up your own mind about wether or not we should be concerned with our team payroll amounts. I think it is clear that coaching staffs and the GM probably have a much greater influence on the record. Now wether or not Clark should have cut jobs and salaries is whole other bag of worms. Now at least you have some hard numbers to use as a reference.
As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!