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Some Clarification is in Order: What Does One Yard Cost? Part 2

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In the last article about player value we looked at the Broncos team from a stand point of salary cap percentage and Approximate Value. There was a lot of great discussion as well in the comments about other angles too look at this idea of value and while I do have a few ideas of my own to work through, as this series keeps moving, I'll try and get through as many different sides as possible.

Today I wanted to cover two topics:

- Breaking down the Broncos roster by squad to look at which players had the best value and production at a given positions.

I feel that by looking at the team through these lens's will allow us to see what positions tend to be overvalued and whether it's true, in the case of the Broncos, if free agents are generally overpaid.

Methodology Review:

I would seriously encourage anyone who has read the introduction of my last article to read it since I will be using the same methodology as last time and considering I spend over half of the space in my last article preparing this series. Now I will continue to use the Approximate Value (AV) metric from Pro Football Reference as well as position specific statistics. I will be breaking it down into efficiency metrics to get a better value, so while I might include sacks, I will also include cost per sack. Now I will also include statistics from all areas the player played at. So when looking at Tebow, I will combine rushes and pass attempts into touches, and I'll include all touchdowns, whether combining passing and rushing touchdowns or rushing and receiving touchdowns.

Let's begin by looking at the Broncos position by position:

Tables:

Table Group 1 Offense Positional Review

Quarterbacks:

Player Salary AV Cost per AV Touches Cost per Touch Yards Cost per Yard TD's Cost per TD
Orton, Kyle 8480000 2 4240000 160 53000 996 8514 8 1060000
Tebow, Tim 4768750 8 596094 393 12134 2389 1996 18 264931
Quinn, Brady 700000 0 700000 0 700000 0 700000 0 700000

Running Backs:

Player Salary AV Cost per AV Touches Cost per Touch Yards Cost per Yard TD's Cost per TD
McGahee, Willis 2500000 7 357143 261 9579 1250 2000 5 500000
Moreno, Knowshon 1832000 2 916000 48 38167 280 6543 1 1832000
Ball, Lance 405000 3 135000 112 3616 550 736 2 202500
Johnson, Jeremiah 465000 1 465000 21 22146 139 3345 0 465000
Larsen, Spencer 555000 2 277500 23 24130 120 4625 0 555000

Tight Ends:

Player Salary AV Cost per AV Touches Cost per Touch Yards Cost per Yard TD's Cost per TD
Fells, Daniel 1500000 4 375000 19 78947 256 5859 3 500000
Rosario, Dante 555000 2 277500 7 79286 117 4744 0 555000
Green, Virgil 379320 1 379320 3 126440 24 15805 0 379320
Thomas, Julius 471000 0 471000 1 471000 5 94200 0 471000

Wide Receivers:

Player Salary AV Cost per AV Touches Cost per Touch Yards Cost per Yard TD's Cost per TD
Decker, Eric 1163037 6 193840 45 25845 613 1897 9
129226
Thomas, Demaryius 2327500 4 581875 33 70530 556 4186 4 581875
Lloyd, Brandon 1395000 2 697500 19 73421 283 4929 0 1395000
Willis, Matt 480000 2 240000 18 26667 267 1798 1 480000
Royal, Eddie 555000 2 277500 26 21346 203 2734 2
277500

Offensive Lineman:

Player Salary AV Cost per AV Snaps Played
Cost per Snap
Clady, Ryan 1615000 6 269167 1213 1331
Beadles, Zane 1007000 5 201400 1215 829
Walton, J.D. 604625 5 120925 1215 498
Kuper, Chris 7000000 5 1400000 1014 6903
Franklin, Orlando 795000 6 132500 1192 667
Clark, Chris 405000 3 135000 152 2664

Table Group 2 Defense Positional Review

Defensive Lineman:

Player Salary AV Cost per AV Tackles
Cost per Tackle
Sacks
Cost per Sack QB Pressures
Cost per Pressure
Bunkley, Brodrick 635000 7 90714 37 17162 0 635000 6 105833
Ayers, Robert 880000 6 146667 41 21463 3 293333 25 35200
Dumervil, Elvis 14500000 10 1450000 43 337209 9.5 1526316 40 362500
Harvey, Derrick 600000 1 600000 4 150000 0 600000 3 200000
Hunter, Jason 715000 3 238333 23 31087 1 715000 9 79444
McBean, Ryan 480000 3 160000 8 60000 0 480000 9 53333
Thomas, Marcus 1000000 6 166667 46 21739 0 1000000 4 250000
Unrein, Mitch 415000 1 415000 8 51875 0 415000 0 415000
Vickerson, Kevin 1375000 2 687500 4 343750 0 1375000 3 458333

Linebackers:

Player Salary AV Cost per AV Tackles
Cost per Tackle
Sacks
Cost per Sack QB Pressures
Cost per Pressure
Int
Cost per Int
Williams, D.J. 4900000 7 700000 70 70000 5 980000 11 445455 0 4900000
Woodyard, Wesley 455000 4 113750 60 7583 0 455000 2 227500 0 455000
Miller, Von 3800000 12 316667 51 74510 11.5 330435 57 66667 0 3800000
Mays, Joe 555000 6 92500 67 8284 0 555000 11 50455 0 555000
Irving, Nate 548750 1 548750 1 548750 0 548750 1 548750 0 548750
Haggan, Mario 1930000 2 965000 12 160833 0 1930000 0 1930000 1 1930000

Defensive Backs:

Player Salary AV Cost per AV Tackles
Cost per Tackle
Sacks
Cost per Sack QB Pressures
Cost per Pressure
Int
Cost per Int
Goodman, Andre 2880000 7 411429 43 66977 0 2880000 0 2880000 2 1440000
Bailey, Champ 11500000 12 958333 35 328571 0 11500000 1 11500000 2 5750000
Carter, Quinton 578750 4 144688 41 14116 1 578750 1 578750 0 578750
Moore, Rahim 807500 3 269167 29 27845 0 807500 1 807500 1 807500
Bruton, David 600000 2 300000 17 35294 0 600000 2 300000 0 600000
Dawkins, Brian 6000000 5 1200000 38 157895 3 2000000 3 2000000 0 6000000
Harris, Chris 466000 3 155333 60 7767 0 466000 2 233000 1 466000
Vaughn, Cassius 405000 2 202500 15 27000 0 405000 0 405000 1 405000
Wilhite, Jonathan 405000 2 202500 23 17609 2 202500 3 135000 1 405000

A few players that seemed to be a good balance of value and production would be:

- Eric Decker
- Willis McGahee
- The young lineman (Walton, Beadles, Franklin)
- Brodrick Bunkley
- Robert Ayers
- Jason Hunter
- Joe Mays
- Quinton Carter
- Chris Harris

Now these may not have been the best players on the team, but they combined solid production with a good value. I also want to make sure you know I'm not saying we overpaid Champ, Doom or Kuper, though some players may have been overpaid. For a player like Champ or Doom, you have to pay them more to keep their production, which may not be good value, but is hard to replace.

In the next article I'll try and beginning breaking down the league position by position to look for which players are the best value at a specific position, and we'll be doing quarterbacks and running backs next time. Thanks for reading.