Cost of a Win: Cash on the Sidelines Doesn't Stop Denver Broncos

Kuper is our best offensive lineman, leader of the O-Line, signal caller of the O-Line, mentor to Beadles, Walton and Franklin, and Team Captain. The pay is commiserate with players with similar roles on other teams. If we are going to bring this team back to respectability it must start in the trenches and Kuper is the best guy to build our O-Line around.
 
In my opinion.

However, that hasn’t seem to have affected Green Bay. Maybe with all the injuries they had last year, those players that had to rehab returned in peak condition. Just a thought.

and whoever picked the cleats. Our guys were sliding all over the place. No wonder they got hurt.

He just wanted to win a few Mother Fn games! ;)

but paragraph 5 salary is around half of that: $9.698mil.

When looking at the cost of investing in the QB position, you always want to start with the base salary, since that is the core number, and then look at how much money was paid up front for that service term. Next you consider how much it costs for the “upkeep” on investment (roster bonuses), and finally you consider player leverage in the form of incentives. In terms of evaluating the investment, you can leave out the incentives portion and just consider the other three.

The $9.6mil base investment for 3 QBs is very low, compared to the rest of the league. A top fifteen QB alone (which is any team’s goal, probably) will be $9mil+ in 2011. A top five QB will be $15mil+. Figure in costs of backups and development players, and a $9.6mil base salary investment is shooting par for a team that is looking for its QB.

The cost to acquire this investment is factored in next. This is most commonly the signing bonus, though it should be noted that QB contracts are usually the most valuable contracts on a roster, and thus they tend to break the mold often in how they are structured. The Broncos cost to be invested in this position is $195k in 2011…. that is ridiculously low, and is the biggest sign that this team has its options open regarding where they want to go next with QB. A “cost to invest” number that low doesn’t really need to be compared leaguewide, but here are three numbers to compare it to, a top5, a top10 and a top15: Brady, $3.2mil; Rivers, 2.79mil; Cutler, $1.4mil.

Lastly we look at “investment maintenance” costs to be invested at the QB position. These are typically roster bonuses, or guaranteed portions of the salary. The Broncos are slightly out of whack here with $7.725mil earmarked. Compare this again to a Top 5, 10 and 15 investment position: Brady, $4mil; Rivers, $6mil(guaranteed only for injury); Cutler, $500k.

Almost all these numbers indicate that Denver is “under-invested” in the QB position, except the maintenance cost numbers. This could be viewed as indicative of the fact that facing a decision at QB is an expense in and of itself, and it cost the Broncos about $7mil this year to keep their options open and on the table. Most teams with a settled QB situation will only spend about half of that at most. Also the majority of these maintenance costs ($6.2mil) are because of Tebow, so again, he is such a different set of circumstances that denver paid extra to keep him on the table as an option.

Across the board, I would guess the upper 2/3rds of teams are invested in the QB position for between $18-$25mil. Also, towards your comment specifically, part of the “breakup” with the existing QB had to do with resigning him… a case could be made that he wasn’t really here at all….

it has been filled over the years from sources like the Denver Post, rotoworld, sportrac and player agents. When I look up data for another team, I go straight to rotoworld and sportrac.