Complete List of SB Winning Players with a $10M Cap Hit - All 18 of Them (1 Viewer)

[Anarchy99]

Here is a list of all players that won a Super Bowl with a salary cap hit of $10+ million. There have been 18 of them so far. In the 2018 season, there are 130 players with cap hits of $10+ million (19 QB, 20 WR, TE2, OL 30, 27 DL, 11 LB, 21 DB). There are no RB's with a cap charge that high this season.

Tom Brady, QB, NE, 2018 - $22M
Peyton Manning, QB, DEN, 2015 - $17.5M
Tom Brady, QB, NE, 2014 - $14.8M
Eli Manning, QB, NYG, 2011 - $14.1M
Tom Brady, QB, NE, 2016 - $13.7M
Demaryius Thomas, WR, DEN, 2015 - $13.2M
Devin McCourty, S, NE, 2018 - $11.9M
Eli Manning, QB, NYG, 2007 - $11.7M
Terrell Suggs, OLB, BAL, 2012 - $11.5M
Zach Miller, TE, SEA, 2013 - $11M
Nick Collins, S, GBP, 2010 - $11M
Rob Gronkowski, TE, NE, 2018 - $10.9M
Alshon Jeffrey, WR, PHI, 2017 - $10.8M
Ryan Clady, LT, DEN, 2015 - $10.6M
Reggie Bush, RB, NOS, 2009 - $10.6M
Halota Ngata, DL, BAL, 2012 - $10.4M
Nate Solder, LT, NE, 2016 - $10.3M
Drew Brees, QB, NOS, 2009 - $10.3M

Obviously the salary cap goes up every year and salaries escalate every year. The question I pose is: Is it merely a coincidence that SB winning teams have not usually spent huge money on top of the market players . . . or do teams that spread out the salary cap across all positions have a competitive advantage?

 

[rockaction]

I think you mean to ask whether or not it's possible in this decade to win one without a $10M guy. Nary a year is missing.

 

[brewer]

I know why you did it this way, because it was easy to determine a 10M guy, but I'd say it would be difficult for any team prior to the 2007 Giants to win with a 10M guy because the cap was so low:

Year	Maximum team salary
2019	$188.2 million
2018	$177.2 million
2017	$167.00 million
2016	$155.27 million
2015	$143.28 million
2014	$133 million
2013	$123 million
2012	$120.6 million
2011	$120 million
2010	Uncapped
2009	$123 million
2008	$116 million
2007	$109 million
2006	$102 million
2005	$85.5 million
2004	$80.582 million
2003	$75.007 million
2002	$71.101 million
2001	$67.405 million
2000	$62.172 million
1999	$57.288 million
1998	$52.388 million
1997	$41.454 million
1996	$40.753 million
1995	$37.1 million
1994	$34.608 million

 

[Anarchy99]

I think you mean to ask whether or not it's possible in this decade to win one without a $10M guy. Nary a year is missing.

Obviously as the years go by contracts go up. $10 million was an arbitrary number. A lot of teams have signed players to huge contracts. The overriding question derived from that is whether that hurts or helps a team. 

 

[brewer]

I think the question is a solid one, but I would wrap it into a percentage of cap(which would be way more difficult to determine).

Still I think your answer is yes, it is possible, because it's a QB league and the QBs get paid the largest percentage of the cap.

 

[rockaction]

Obviously as the years go by contracts go up. $10 million was an arbitrary number. A lot of teams have signed players to huge contracts. The overriding question derived from that is whether that hurts or helps a team. 

Right. I think I was being a little cheeky -- you accounted for that in your premise. I got what you were asking, I'm just not sure a number without some sort of deeper statistical analysis is possible. I mean, you really want to find out whether one individual salary is a dependent or independent variable regarding a team championship, right?

I'd forget how to go about doing that, to be honest.

 

[Anarchy99]

There are two better ways that I can think of to do a better analysis, bot of which would be very time consuming. One would be looking at % cap allocation for individual players. Second would be looking at individual rankings by position based on salary cap to see where the SB winning teams invested their money. Either one would take a ton of time. Obviously a $10 million QB is a bargain in 2019 salary cap dollars. Players under that threshold will be guys on their rookie deals . . . which allows for money to be infused at other positions. The broader question of should teams invest heavily in a few positions instead of spacing out the salary cap across the team is the general premise of the thread.

 

[habsfan]

Not the question you posed but somewhat related. Rather than focus solely on Superbowls, I wonder if there's a way to correlate salary distribution to wins and losses?

I also wonder if these contracts that are going to set the franchise back years actually end up doing that. Is Albert Haynesworth the reason the Redskins are bad? If he ever was, when did he stop being the reason?

 

[Anarchy99]

Spotrac Tweeted today how the the highest paid QB / RB / WR (based on average yearly pay) have fared over the past 8 seasons.

5 of the 8 highest paid QBs missed the playoffs
5 of the 8 highest paid RBs missed the playoffs
6 of the 8 highest paid WRs missed the playoffs

Of those 24 top earning players, the only player that made the Super Bowl was Todd Gurley.

 

[brewer]

Almost exactly the odds of the number of teams who miss the playoffs.....

 

[Leroy Hoard]

I think its fairly obvious that teams not paying a huge amount to one player have an advantage, more money to spread around the other 52 players.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

There are two better ways that I can think of to do a better analysis, bot of which would be very time consuming. One would be looking at % cap allocation for individual players. Second would be looking at individual rankings by position based on salary cap to see where the SB winning teams invested their money. Either one would take a ton of time. Obviously a $10 million QB is a bargain in 2019 salary cap dollars. Players under that threshold will be guys on their rookie deals . . . which allows for money to be infused at other positions. The broader question of should teams invest heavily in a few positions instead of spacing out the salary cap across the team is the general premise of the thread.

Do you have the full database of players and their cap hits?  Couldn't you just cross-reference the cap from each year based on Brewer's list and do the % that way?

 

[Anarchy99]

Do you have the full database of players and their cap hits?  Couldn't you just cross-reference the cap from each year based on Brewer's list and do the % that way?

Spotrac has all type of contract and salary cap data posted online. Not sure if there is a way to download it and filter it. I can go through the individual team data for the SB teams. That wouldn't take too long. What are we wanting to look at? Individual contract as a % of the cap? Rankings of team cap allocation by position? Percentage of cap allocated by position? 

 

[brewer]

Percentage of cap allocated by position? 

I think this one might be the most illuminating and would expect it to ebb and flow over the years due to trends.

 

[Elevencents]

Anyone else surprised to see Reggie Bush getting $10 million?

 

[Anarchy99]

Anyone else surprised to see Reggie Bush getting $10 million?

Not as much as seeing TE Zach Miller at $11 million.

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Not as much as seeing TE Zach Miller at $11 million.

Imagine assigning these values in FF.  People would think we were insane.

 

[CalBear]

Here is a list of all players that won a Super Bowl with a salary cap hit of $10+ million. There have been 18 of them so far. In the 2018 season, there are 130 players with cap hits of $10+ million (19 QB, 20 WR, TE2, OL 30, 27 DL, 11 LB, 21 DB). There are no RB's with a cap charge that high this season.

Tom Brady, QB, NE, 2018 - $22M
Peyton Manning, QB, DEN, 2015 - $17.5M
Tom Brady, QB, NE, 2014 - $14.8M
Eli Manning, QB, NYG, 2011 - $14.1M
Tom Brady, QB, NE, 2016 - $13.7M
Demaryius Thomas, WR, DEN, 2015 - $13.2M
Devin McCourty, S, NE, 2018 - $11.9M
Eli Manning, QB, NYG, 2007 - $11.7M
Terrell Suggs, OLB, BAL, 2012 - $11.5M
Zach Miller, TE, SEA, 2013 - $11M
Nick Collins, S, GBP, 2010 - $11M
Rob Gronkowski, TE, NE, 2018 - $10.9M
Alshon Jeffrey, WR, PHI, 2017 - $10.8M
Ryan Clady, LT, DEN, 2015 - $10.6M
Reggie Bush, RB, NOS, 2009 - $10.6M
Halota Ngata, DL, BAL, 2012 - $10.4M
Nate Solder, LT, NE, 2016 - $10.3M
Drew Brees, QB, NOS, 2009 - $10.3M

Obviously the salary cap goes up every year and salaries escalate every year. The question I pose is: Is it merely a coincidence that SB winning teams have not usually spent huge money on top of the market players . . . or do teams that spread out the salary cap across all positions have a competitive advantage?

I think you're reading your data wrong. What this says to me is that virtually every SB winner since  2007 has had at least one high-played player, and many have had multiple.

To say "only one of the top 24 paid players made the Super Bowl" is a bit silly; how many would you expect in a 32-team league with a salary cap? Two?

 

[Anarchy99]

To say "only one of the top 24 paid players made the Super Bowl" is a bit silly; how many would you expect in a 32-team league with a salary cap? Two?

You read this particular one wrong. Of the #1 highest paid QB / RB / WR each year over the past 8 seasons, only one made the Super Bowl. Theoretically, the highest paid player should be the best player at his position.

As far as having highly paid players, there are plenty of players in today's game paid SUBSTANTIALLY higher than the amount that I arbitrarily selected. There were three $10 million NE players in the SB last year. I don't feel like running back to find the actual numbers so I will use this year's total instead. There are 130 such players this year. 3/130 = 2.3%. There are several teams with multiple guys with $10 million contracts and / or players getting way more than $10 million.

There are any number of ways to research, report on, and analyze the contract data. I will have to give some thought on that.

 

[brewer]

You read this particular one wrong. Of the #1 highest paid QB / RB / WR each year over the past 8 seasons, only one made the Super Bowl. Theoretically, the highest paid player should be the best player at his position.

Sure, but why focus on just those positions?  Why not highest paid offensive lineman or corner back?

QB seems to be the one outlier where it benefits you greatly to have one of the best but I would argue that I'd rather have the best outside linebacker than the best WR or RB.

Now if the data says that the Super Bowl teams have 0 of the highest paid players, that is interesting.  I am just not sure the original list really tells us much.

 

[Anarchy99]

Sure, but why focus on just those positions?  Why not highest paid offensive lineman or corner back?

QB seems to be the one outlier where it benefits you greatly to have one of the best but I would argue that I'd rather have the best outside linebacker than the best WR or RB.

Now if the data says that the Super Bowl teams have 0 of the highest paid players, that is interesting.  I am just not sure the original list really tells us much.

I can look up the individual positions, but what I posted was what was in someone else's tweet.

 

[brewer]

I can look up the individual positions, but what I posted was what was in someone else's tweet.

Ah, sorry, missed that part totally.

 

[jtd13]

Looking at equivalent salary cap % would be a lot more interesting. 

Is the point of this exercise to suggest teams that pay players well don't win the super bowl?

 

[brewer]

Well, it's a salary cap league, so all teams spend about the same amount.  The exercise I think is to see how they allocate it.  Is having 1-3 stars and a bunch of good guys better than having 3-5 stars with average guys, or something like that.

 

[Anarchy99]

Ah, sorry, missed that part totally.

I will look up several things and report back when I have time . . .

- % to cap for key SB wining players
- Positional cap allocation by % for SB winning teams
- Where the players on SB winning teams ranked in terms of salary cap hit at their position.

 

[Leroy Hoard]

This reminds me of FF auction leagues.

 

[Anarchy99]

Looking at equivalent salary cap % would be a lot more interesting. 

Is the point of this exercise to suggest teams that pay players well don't win the super bowl?

I suspect that we will eventually see a trend that teams that devote a large amount of the salary cap to a handful of players don't fare as well, or in this case, haven't won the SB. But we haven't gotten that far yet, so that is more a hypothesis at this point.

 

[-OZ-]

Spotrac Tweeted today how the the highest paid QB / RB / WR (based on average yearly pay) have fared over the past 8 seasons.

5 of the 8 highest paid QBs missed the playoffs
5 of the 8 highest paid RBs missed the playoffs
6 of the 8 highest paid WRs missed the playoffs

Of those 24 top earning players, the only player that made the Super Bowl was Todd Gurley.

So roughly 37.5% of the top paid players make the playoffs, as opposed to 37.5% of all players?

 

[jtd13]

I suspect that we will eventually see a trend that teams that devote a large amount of the salary cap to a handful of players don't fare as well, or in this case, haven't won the SB. But we haven't gotten that far yet, so that is more a hypothesis at this point.

I suspect we will see that trend as well, but it's an interesting question.

I wonder if looking at playoff appearances or division titles would be better than looking at super bowls? Sure, the super bowl is the ultimate level of success in the NFL, but we're going to get a really narrow  team makeup and exclude a lot of other successful teams. For example, since the pats have won the super bowl more often than most teams since $10m players became more common, the super bowl-winning team makeup is probably  going to resemble the pats' team makeup. Does that mean every team should build their team like the pats? Sure, if you have someone as good as BB calling the plays and making the personnel decisions. 

My other thought is that I bet the successful team makeup changed fairly significantly when the new rookie scale came into effect (2010?). It seems like the trend has been for savvy GMs  to find a good QB early, and then pay up at other positions while that QB is on his cheap rookie contracts. 

 

[Long Ball Larry]

I think you're reading your data wrong. What this says to me is that virtually every SB winner since  2007 has had at least one high-played player, and many have had multiple.

To say "only one of the top 24 paid players made the Super Bowl" is a bit silly; how many would you expect in a 32-team league with a salary cap? Two?

how can he be reading the data wrong when all he did was provide the link and propose a question?

 

[Anarchy99]

Unfortunately, the team data on positional salary cap spending on the sites I went only goes back to 2013. But that's better than nothing. The first column for the positions listed is the percentage of the cap spending at that position in that particular year. The second column next to that position is the ranking of that positions spend wise among the 32 teams.

QB RB WR TE OL DL LB DB ST
2018 NEP 12.72 13 4.56 7 8.79 18 8.7 2 11.34 29 9.44 25 9 18 21.63 3 4.36 3
2017 PHI 4.51 26 4.37 11 11.43 11 5.54 11 19.43 6 20.38 5 8.43 19 10.72 23 1.93 22
2016 NEP 9.55 18 2.56 22 10.59 15 7.54 3 14.96 14 5.67 31 15.24 8 10.94 28 4 6
2015 DEN 12.71 7 1.36 30 15.31 4 5.27 11 16.39 9 6.44 28 16.14 3 16.52 12 2.47 20
2014 NEP 11.09 13 2.85 21 9.97 12 5.25 10 11.7 27 8.18 23 12.87 14 16.94 10 3.55 8
2013 SEA 1.1 30 7.36 5 12.21 6 9.27 1 20.29 1 23.67 3 5.35 31 8.89 28 2.03 19


I never would have guessed that all 6 teams would have ranked in the Top 11 in the league in dollars spent at TE. NE made up half the chart and they didn't invest much in the OL / DL. They ranked 29th, 14th, and 27th in OL spend and 25th, 31st, and 23rd in DL spend. The other positions seemed to fluctuate for them. A team like SEA clearly benefited by having to pay Wilson next to nothing in their SB winning season, as they ranked Top 56 in spending in 5 other positions.

 

[Deamon]

Unfortunately, the team data on positional salary cap spending on the sites I went only goes back to 2013. But that's better than nothing. The first column for the positions listed is the percentage of the cap spending at that position in that particular year. The second column next to that position is the ranking of that positions spend wise among the 32 teams.

QB RB WR TE OL DL LB DB ST
2018 NEP 12.72 13 4.56 7 8.79 18 8.7 2 11.34 29 9.44 25 9 18 21.63 3 4.36 3
2017 PHI 4.51 26 4.37 11 11.43 11 5.54 11 19.43 6 20.38 5 8.43 19 10.72 23 1.93 22
2016 NEP 9.55 18 2.56 22 10.59 15 7.54 3 14.96 14 5.67 31 15.24 8 10.94 28 4 6
2015 DEN 12.71 7 1.36 30 15.31 4 5.27 11 16.39 9 6.44 28 16.14 3 16.52 12 2.47 20
2014 NEP 11.09 13 2.85 21 9.97 12 5.25 10 11.7 27 8.18 23 12.87 14 16.94 10 3.55 8
2013 SEA 1.1 30 7.36 5 12.21 6 9.27 1 20.29 1 23.67 3 5.35 31 8.89 28 2.03 19


I never would have guessed that all 6 teams would have ranked in the Top 11 in the league in dollars spent at TE. NE made up half the chart and they didn't invest much in the OL / DL. They ranked 29th, 14th, and 27th in OL spend and 25th, 31st, and 23rd in DL spend. The other positions seemed to fluctuate for them. A team like SEA clearly benefited by having to pay Wilson next to nothing in their SB winning season, as they ranked Top 56 in spending in 5 other positions.

So the key to a SB win is a cheap-ish QB and a stud TE.

 

[Anarchy99]

Here are the individual positional rankings for the SB participants in the last 6 SB's. The first column represents the highest AAV of the player on the winning team at that position. The second  column reflects the highest AAV of the player on the losing team.

			QB	QB	RB	RB	WR	WR	TE	TE	OT	OT	G	G	C	C
2018	NEP	LAR	21	26	17	1	44	4	4	45	30	14	11	25	19	16
2017	PHI	NEP	25	15	13	19	8	33	5	4	10	14	12	70	12	16
2016	NEP	ATL	12	11	36	54	38	3	5	45	12	41	65	7	51	2
2015	DEN	CAR	15	6	55	8	4	63	8	5	5	36	12	52	65	5
2014	NEP	SEA	16	59	45	6	24	33	2	19	31	11	27	42	15	5
2013	SEA	DEN	55	5	6	21	6	24	7	20	10	3	39	14	3	34

			DT	DT	DE	DE	OLB	OLB	ILB	ILB	CB	CB	S	S
2018	NEP	LAR	30	1	36	14	68	54	8	6	8	16	7	4
2017	PHI	NEP	105	28	12	38	18	14	63	11	74	8	8	7
2016	NEP	ATL	46	18	49	28	26	51	41	35	82	13	5	35
2015	DEN	CAR	51	37	9	3	6	7	81	1	10	57	16	63
2014	NEP	SEA	6	16	120	13	26	15	10	35	4	2	36	1
2013	SEA	DEN	16	28	12	44	42	20	34	26	89	2	7	35

 

[brewer]

In addition to the obvious TE, those are some interesting numbers at Safety and Center.