NFL Teams Who Spend More of Their Cap Space on Defensive Line Have Performed Worse Lately

NFL Free Agency is just around the corner. Teams will be lining up for a handful of free agents who have now hit the market, such as Ndamukong Suh, Julius Thomas, DeMarco Murray, and Randall Cobb. Cap space is plentiful and rising. Money will be spent.

Teams can try to save space and spend frugally. In the end, the money must be (mostly) used somewhere, as teams must spend 89% in of the salary cap in cash over four year periods.

How have teams that spent at different positions performed? Using Spotrac data for the last five years, I looked at teams that ranked in the top 8 in cap value in a given year, at each position. This was done by looking at positions, not specific players. For some positions, that is one and the same. Teams mostly play all their QB money to one QB, for example, or one center. At others, like defensive end or linebacker, the money may be more spread out across multiple players.

Here’s a summary of the average win totals for the 40 teams at each position who were at the top of spending in a given year.

And here’s a summary of the percentage of times the teams in the Top 8 in position spending made the playoffs in a given year.

Teams that have devoted a higher percentage of their spending to the defensive line have underperformed relative to other positions. (Oh, and don’t generally spend on a kicker). The two positions–just behind offensive guard–rank last in percentage of times they reach the playoffs. The other defensive positions (linebacker and secondary) rate at the other end of the spectrum from 2010 to 2014. This isn’t out of line with my research into whether good teams really do “build along the lines” in terms of resources spent.