In my pursuit of the Baltimore GM job a while back, I based part of my pitch around improving how the team spent its cap space. Cap space is something GMs must carefully manage to ensure they can afford to both build a competitive team and then keep it together on the field for as long as possible. Carefully managing the team’s finances is essential to putting a winning product on the field. The primary way GMs manage cap space is through signing players to extensions or longer contracts while the player is at low TPE, allowing them to play under the required minimum based on TPE as far into the future as possible. Doing this frees up money that should be going to the player based on their TPE minimum to be spent on other players, free agents, or bonuses. Whether intentional or not, this financial system is now baked into the league and is something players and GMs must constantly wrestle with.
A quick look at the budget sheet and some formulas in Excel can provide a neat overview at which teams are doing the best job at shorting their players and which are overpaying. Obviously if you think about it like this is the real world, underpayment of workers can be a real problem. Since this is a sim league and the money is entirely fake, it’s a bit less of a compelling argument but it still bothers me a little bit that building a successful team basically depends fully on shorting your players. That said, how to actually address the issue is a separate thing entirely. For now, let’s amuse ourselves by looking at which teams are the best at underpaying.
As a disclaimer, the current TPE and salary are pulled from the bank page. I am confident that this page is accurate and up to date, but be aware that things are always changing and these numbers might look quite different, especially if someone is close to hitting the next TPE category and will do so during the season. Keeping that in mind, this is how things look currently as we prepare for the first week of the new season.
There is a two way tie for dead last. Philadelphia and Baltimore are both overpaying their rosters by $2.5 million overall. For Philadelphia, the cause is incredibly easy to identify. Darrel Williams is being paid $8.5 million as a 928 TPE running back, an overpay of $4.5 million. Were Williams being paid his minimum salary, the team would find themselves overpaying as a whole. The Liberty have been known to throw out some big contracts since the new GMs took over, though. The Liberty overpay six players and underpay only five, making them the team that overpays the most and underpays the least. 15 of their players are currently paid their current minimum, which is the second highest total in the league. When the new GMs took over they found themselves with the ability to pay a premium to keep people they liked around or to bring on some extra talent. As the new regime continues to develop, though, I’d imagine they will find they won’t be able to do that much longer as the home grown talent grows up and starts hitting higher minimums. It will be interesting to see how they manage that challenge moving into the future.
Baltimore is the only other team that overpays their roster as a whole and are coincidentally the other team that most recently lost their GMs in dramatic fashion and ended with new GMs being installed by some combination of interim GMs and Head Office. Baltimore’s overpay, though, comes largely in the forms of rookies from the old regime being paid four million dollars, since apparently the old GMs did not realize that players signed by the team but sent to the DSFL would be paid $4 million regardless of what salary the team gave them was. As a result, the team now has a handful of called up players that are all being paid four million right off the bat. I feel reasonably certain that this is not a mistake Frick and Hall will repeat going into the future, but if their bid was anything like mine was it caused some headaches. In any case, the team is in full rebuild mode and will likely be tanking for more high picks again going into next season. As it currently stands, Baltimore overpays four players, second highest in the league to only Philadelphia, which accounts for 20% of their total roster, a total that is also second worst only ahead of Philadelphia. The team underpays just over a third of their roster, a total that is well ahead of the Liberty and also manages to surpass Yellowknife, an outcome that honestly surprised me. They have 9 players who are paid at their current minimum, a total that makes up just under half their total roster for the season. As an interesting aside, Baltimore comes into the season tied with Honolulu and San Jose for the fewest total players on their roster with 20.
Every other team has managed to underpay their roster on a whole. The team next team up is Yellowknife, who have managed to underpay their collective roster by $5 million. The Wraiths have only three players that are overpaid. Those players make up 14.3% of their current roster, which is good for tenth best in the league. They have managed to underpay six of their 21 players, which is good for 28.6% of their roster and is the second lowest percentage in the entire league. Yellowknife does, however, have the third highest percentage of players who are paid at their current minimum with 57.1% of the roster being paid at the “correct” level. Yellowknife’s biggest savings come from underpaying Big Slammu and Kai Sakura by $2 million each. Unlike Baltimore and Philly, the team is not overpaying a player by more than $1 million.
New Orleans follows Yellowknife by underpaying their roster by a collective $8 million. Of the 21 players on their roster, only three are overpaid. That comes out to 14.3%, which is good for a tie with Yellowknife for tenth highest in the league. New Orleans manages, though, to underpay nine of their 21 players, coming out to 42.9% of their roster, good for eighth in the league in terms of percentage. The remaining nine players are paid at their current minimum. Most of New Orleans’ savings come from paying Mr. Forty-Two and Vincent Jones $2 million apiece under their current minimum expectation. No player currently on their roster is overpaid by more than $1 million. That’s a small trend I’ve noticed between the last two teams. When these teams do overpay someone, it is usually by a small amount and the overpay is covered by other players who are underpaid by $2 million.
The next team up is Honolulu, who are currently underpaying their roster by a collective $9 million. Honolulu is the second team with only twenty players on their roster. Of those twenty, the Hahalua overpay three, putting them 12th in terms of the percent of their roster that is overpaid. Exactly half their roster is underpaid, putting the team total at 50%, good enough to lift them to third. The remaining seven players are paid at their current minimum. Like the previous two teams, the Hahalua manage to wrack up significant savings by paying a couple players $2 million under their current minimum. Those two players are Cobra Kai and Asher Mountain. The Hahalua, unlike the previous two, also have a player in Griffin Porter that is overpaid by $2 million. All the other players are either even or fall in at +/- $1 million.
Next up are my home team, the Colorado Yeti. The Yeti have managed to underpay their roster of 21 players by a combined $10 million. Only two of the 21 players are overpaid on the roster, making 9.5% of the roster overpaid. That is good for the eight lowest total in the league. The 10 players who are underpaid make up 47.6% of the roster, giving the Yeti the sixth highest percent of the roster that is underpaid. The remaining 9 players are paid at their current required minimum. Colorado’s biggest savings rest on the back of Rusty Rucker, the 846 TPE linebacker who is still only being paid $2 million. The only two players who were overpaid are both relatively new additions to the roster from free agency. Those two are tight end Frank Michell and the beloved offensive lineman Dorfus Jimbo Jr.
Next up we have two teams who have both managed to underpay their rosters by $11 million. Up first we will examine the Sabercats. San Jose has managed to only overpay a single player, the fewest we have seen so far. That one player makes up 5% of their roster and puts their percentage of overpaid players at the sixth lowest in the league. Half of their roster is underpaid, bringing them into a tie for the third highest percentage of the roster being paid under their minimum contract values. The remaining nine players are all paid at their current minimum. San Jose gets big savings from wide receiver Tychondrius Hood, offensive lineman Jaja Ding dong, and safety Brendan Lanier. They are the first team we have seen so far to have three players underpaid by more than $1 million. The one player picking the team’s pocket is S28 cornerback Juno Hu.
Rounding out the tie at $11 million under are the Austin Copperheads. Austin has 24 players on their roster, the second most we have seen so far behind only Philadelphia. Like the Sabercats, the Copperheads only overpay a single player. They managed to underpay half their roster, though, bringing them into the three-way tie for third highest percentage of the roster taking under their minimum contract. The remaining seven players are paid at their current minimum values. Unlike San Jose, the Copperheads do not have a single player that is over or underpaid by more or less than $1 million. Most other teams have at least one player who is under by $2 million, but the Copperheads have not managed this feat. The one overpaid player is the S23 cornerback Leseasn Paris Crooks.
As if normal ties weren’t fun enough, the next teams up are in a three way tie. I will be discussing them in order they appear on my spreadsheet. I’m not entirely sure what secondary characteristics it sorted on, so I’m sorry if that bothers you. First up in this tie will be Sarasota. The Sailfish are fielding a roster of 24 players this season. Only one of those is overpaid, bringing the team into fourth with only 4.2% of their roster being overpaid. 10 of the 24 are underpaid, bringing the team’s total to 41.7% of the roster and knocking the Sailfish into tenth best in that regard. The remaining 13 players are paid at the proper minimum for their TPE. The Sailfish get big savings coming out of Ernest Lover and Harrison Andrews. Lover is still being paid only $1.5 million despite being 736 TPE at the time of this writing while Andrews is paid $3 million despite being over 1k TPE. The team’s only overpaid player is Thad Pennington Jr. and it’s a small overpay, with the S24 OL only making $500k more than his minimum.
Moving right along to the next team in the three-way tie brings us to the Orange County Otters. Their roster will feature an impressive 27 players going into next season. Of those, only one player is overpaid, putting the Otters at 3.7% of their roster falling into the overpaid category. That figure is good for a tie for the second best percentage in the league. The 11 players the Otters have underpaid comprise 40.7% of the roster, a total that is good for the 10th largest percent of the roster being overpaid currently. The remaining 15 players are paid at the appropriate minimum. The Otters have the fourth highest percentage of their roster being paid the exact dollar figure of their minimum contract. The most team friendly contract for the Otters belongs to their 1,011 TPE linebacker Joseph Joestar. The one player swiping a little extra off the top is offensive lineman Future Trunks.
The final team in that aforementioned tie are the Arizona Outlaws. The Outlaws also have a roster featuring 27 players in the upcoming season. Of al the teams, Arizona stands out as the only team that does not have a single player that is currently paid higher than they need to be. The entire roster is either paid at or below their minimum. They only underpay ten of their players. Those ten make up 37% of their roster, slotting them all the way down into 11th in terms of teams with the highest percentage of their roster being underpaid. The remaining 17 players comprise 63% of their roster and are paid at their current minimum. As a team, the Outlaws have the highest percentage of players at their current minimum and the lowest percentage of overpaid players. Both Taro Raimon and DB Jadakiss are paid $2 million under their current minimum. Honestly for a team that has managed to not overpay a single player, I was expecting the Outlaws to have a few more players that were underpaid.
The next team managed to just slightly outperform the previous three, coming in at $12.5 million under. The New York Silverbacks are third from the top in terms of the sheer dollar amount they are underpaying their players, despite having fewer opportunities to do so with only 22 players on their roster. Three of those 22 are overpaid, putting 13.6% of their roster into that category. 12 of their players are underpaid, putting the percentage of underpaid players on their roster at 54.5%, which is good for second best in the league. The GMs there really have managed to do something special in terms of not paying their players. The remaining seven are paid at the current minimum. New York gets big savings from safeties Bob Roberts and Dogwood Maple. The team does not have a player that is overpaid by more than $1 million.
Moving on up brings us to the second best team at robbing their players: The Chicago Butchers. The Butchers will also trot out 27 players for next season and are only overpaying one of them. 3.7% of your players being overpaid is the second lowest total, behind only Arizona’s 0%. The Butchers have managed to underpay 12, bringing the percentage of their players in that category to 44.4%, which is good for seventh highest. The remaining 14 players are paid at their current minimum. The butchers get big savings from defensive End Von Hayes and linebacker Juan Domine. The only overpaid player is running back Baby Yoda. With a name like that, I’m all for tossing them a little extra cash.
The team that has managed to pay its players the least is the Berline FireSalamanders at $18 million under. What interested me most is that it’s not even close between Berlin and Chicago. The gap between those two teams is a full five million, the difference a 1,000+ TPE player makes at full cost. That’s some incredible savings from the Berlin GMs. Berlin overpays two of their 23 players, coming in at 8.7% of the roster in the overpaid category. They have underpaid 65.2% of their roster, which leads the league (obviously). Nearly two thirds of their roster is being paid under the current minimums. Only six are paid at their minimum level, making up 26.1% of the roster and being the team with the fewest players coming in even. Berlin’s biggest savings come from wide receivers Cmon Skiuuup (great name, btw) and Achtfunf and linebackers Adam Schell and BamBam McMullet. The two players getting a little extra are Joseph Petrongolo and Susan Cash Jr. Berlin’s ability to short its players is certainly impressive.
Here are the totals for how much each team under/over paid their players:
-18,000,000
-13,000,000
-12,500,000
-12,000,000
-11,000,000
-10,000,000
-9,000,000
-8,000,000
-5,000,000
2,500,000
If you’ve made it this far, congrats! You’re about 2,700 words in. Because I want more money and think this will also be interesting, we’re going to continue into analysis of which positions are most frequently over or under paid. Keep in mind this data is still coming from the bank, but now includes people who are under contract with a team but are currently stashed in the DSFL and waiting their time to be called up.
Let’s start with QBs. By my count, there were 22 QBs under contract in some shape or form. Of those 22, 9 were under paid (40.9%), only 2 were overpaid (9.1%), and 11 (50%) were paid in line with their minimum. This should not be surprising. QB is a highly competitive position with most of the people signing up to play there under the assumption that they’re going to max earn and stick it out with one team. Especially with positions where nearly everyone is expected to get to well over 1k TPE, it makes sense that most would be at their minimum and not over or below it. Once you hit 1k, it’s impossible to extend someone below the $5 million pricetag. Most QBs will likely go well beyond that mark and will end up on those monster $5 million deals.
I picked up on 50 eligible wide receivers. Of those 50, 24 are underpaid (48%), 9 are overpaid (18%), and 17 are paid at their current minimum (34%). If you want to be paid more than the minimum, wide receiver isn’t your best bet either. There are twice the players at WR making over the minimum than there are at QB, but it’s still less than 1/5 that are getting the bonus checks while the rest are at or below their minimum. And there is a higher percentage of WRs under the minimum than there are at QB.
I picked up on 48 eligible running backs. Of those, 12 are underpaid (25%), 11 are overpaid (22.9%), and 25 are making their current minimum salary (52.1%). At a quick glance, running back definitely seems like a decent position to make more than the minimum. By my count, nearly a quarter are overpaid across the board and more than half are at least making their minimum value. That’s the largest proportion making the minimum salary so far and the smallest being underpaid by a wide margin. I do wonder how many of those are stashed away in the DSFL where the team doesn’t have to really think about their salary, since it doesn’t count against the cap and will be covered by the base DSFL salary that all players take while they wait for their callups.
I counted 21 eligible tight ends. Six of those were underpaid (28.6%), 3 are overpaid (14.3%), and 12 are paid at their current minimum (57.1%). Tight ends are one of the hardest to come by players. The only position where I counted fewer eligible players were kickers with 20. As such, I would almost expect that teams might be willing to pay a bit of a premium for quality tight end play. While the situation here is still better than QBs or RBs in terms of being underpaid, the situation is worse in terms of being overpaid (except for QBs, but as mentioned before it seems rare to me that a team would want to overpay their QB).
There were 42 eligible offensive linemen. OL is a pretty interesting position since getting to a decent TPE total and a few years of positional experience will make a human player both substantially better and cheaper than a bot OL. Of the 42 eligible OL, 12 are underpaid (28.6%), 7 are overpaid (16.7%), and 23 are paid at their current minimum (54.8%). Offensive linemen are pretty well off in terms of making at least their minimum. Only three other percentages have a higher percentage of players at that position being paid the appropriate minimum salary and just over a quarter are paid below the minimum. You could definitely do worse if you don’t mind having pancakes and sacks allowed be your only meaningful stats.
I counted 30 eligible defensive tackles. Of those, 10 were underpaid (33.3%), 1 was overpaid (3.3%), and 19 were paid at their appropriate minimum (63.3%). If you want to sit at but not below the medium, defensive tackle is the way to go for you. Nearly two thirds of all defensive tackles are paid exactly what the rulebook says their minimum should be. Unfortunately only one (ONE) is overpaid. While overpaying players in general isn’t very common, it’s especially not common at defensive tackle. You will not be overpaid at this position. A third even are paid below the current minimum.
I counted 37 defensive ends that fit the criteria. Of those, 15 are underpaid (40.5%), 5 are overpaid (13.5%), and 17 are paid right at their minimum (45.9%). Defensive tackle is definitely better than defensive end if you want to be paid a decent salary. They have one of the higher percentages of players who are paid below the minimum and are towards the middle or lower in terms of being paid over or at your current minimum.
There were 53 linebackers that fit the criteria. Linebacker is a pretty popular position to play and one that is incredibly important to a defense. Of those, 28 were underpaid (52.8%), 8 were overpaid (15.1%), and 17 were paid at their current minimum (32.1%). Linebackers are chronically underpaid. More than half the people currently at the position are making less money than the rulebook says they should be based on their current TPE. Still, they aren’t terrible in terms of the proportion of linebackers being overpaid. Where they really suffer is the precent that are currently making their minimum. More than 80% of the linebackers are making their minimum or less.
I counted 50 cornerbacks that met the criteria I was looking for. Of those, 17 are underpaid (34%), 10 are overpaid (20%), and 23 are paid exactly what their minimum says they should be (46%). Cornerback isn’t a bad route to go if you’re looking to be overpaid. They have the third highest percentage of players being overpaid and a relatively low percentage of players being underpaid. You could definitely do worse.
There were 42 safeties I took a look at. Of those, 17 are underpaid (40.5%), only 5 are overpaid (11.9%), and 20 are paid exactly what they should be (47.6%). Safeties are one of the most underpaid positions. So far, they are underpaid less than LBs, QBs, and WRs. If you want the big paychecks from the team, safety probably isn’t the way to go. They are also one of the least likely to be overpaid and nearly half of all safeties are just sitting at the minimum.
Finally, we arrive at the 20 kickers and punters that I looked at. Of those, only 1 is underpaid (5%), 7 are overpaid (35%), and 12 are paid at the current minimum (60%). If you want to be overpaid according to the current minimums in the rulebook, create at kicker! Over a third of all kickers are overpaid and in the entire league only one single kicker makes below the minimum. For anyone looking to make their team foot the bill for their weekly trainings, please seriously consider creating at kicker. There are fewer kickers around the league than QBs right now and kicker makes you more likely to have a few extra bucks tossed your way.
https://imgur.com/a/od3ZnCt
Finally, I want to take a quick moment to discuss something I found interesting. If we make a scatterchart to look at the dollar amount a team was over or underpaying and the total TPE on that team (per the tracker as of the day this was posted), we see what looks to be a pretty strong relationship. I’m not a data specialist by any means, but I did find this interesting and wanted to include a little graphic for y’all to admire. Someone who knows better can definitely tell me off for being an idiot, but there seems to be a relatively strong relationship between underpaying your players and having more TPE on the team.
While I’m not really sure at this time that I have a better system, I would definitely like to see this addressed in some way. The vast majority of players in the league are either taking minimum contracts or are signing extensions that will see them playing below their minimum into the future. I know there are teams and players that will selectively earn in order to get as much TPE while playing on as low a contract as possible going into the future. I wish the minimum values laid out in the rulebook were treated more like an actual minimum and less like the target value for most player contract. It would be cool to see some sort of a system that bases contract on the players’ on-field performance from the last few seasons and the value they produce for the team instead of TPE. I’m not sure how practical that idea is, but I’d love to hear more ideas on how we can make this system work more for the players and turn it into less of a game of paying players as little as possible for as long as possible.
If you’ve made it all the way through this, thank you! I believe this is my longest article to date and I think it’s relatively interesting. I hope at least a few of you feel similarly. I look forward to the new season and getting back to some of the midseason updates and power rankings. Have a wonderful day, friends!
A quick look at the budget sheet and some formulas in Excel can provide a neat overview at which teams are doing the best job at shorting their players and which are overpaying. Obviously if you think about it like this is the real world, underpayment of workers can be a real problem. Since this is a sim league and the money is entirely fake, it’s a bit less of a compelling argument but it still bothers me a little bit that building a successful team basically depends fully on shorting your players. That said, how to actually address the issue is a separate thing entirely. For now, let’s amuse ourselves by looking at which teams are the best at underpaying.
As a disclaimer, the current TPE and salary are pulled from the bank page. I am confident that this page is accurate and up to date, but be aware that things are always changing and these numbers might look quite different, especially if someone is close to hitting the next TPE category and will do so during the season. Keeping that in mind, this is how things look currently as we prepare for the first week of the new season.
There is a two way tie for dead last. Philadelphia and Baltimore are both overpaying their rosters by $2.5 million overall. For Philadelphia, the cause is incredibly easy to identify. Darrel Williams is being paid $8.5 million as a 928 TPE running back, an overpay of $4.5 million. Were Williams being paid his minimum salary, the team would find themselves overpaying as a whole. The Liberty have been known to throw out some big contracts since the new GMs took over, though. The Liberty overpay six players and underpay only five, making them the team that overpays the most and underpays the least. 15 of their players are currently paid their current minimum, which is the second highest total in the league. When the new GMs took over they found themselves with the ability to pay a premium to keep people they liked around or to bring on some extra talent. As the new regime continues to develop, though, I’d imagine they will find they won’t be able to do that much longer as the home grown talent grows up and starts hitting higher minimums. It will be interesting to see how they manage that challenge moving into the future.
Baltimore is the only other team that overpays their roster as a whole and are coincidentally the other team that most recently lost their GMs in dramatic fashion and ended with new GMs being installed by some combination of interim GMs and Head Office. Baltimore’s overpay, though, comes largely in the forms of rookies from the old regime being paid four million dollars, since apparently the old GMs did not realize that players signed by the team but sent to the DSFL would be paid $4 million regardless of what salary the team gave them was. As a result, the team now has a handful of called up players that are all being paid four million right off the bat. I feel reasonably certain that this is not a mistake Frick and Hall will repeat going into the future, but if their bid was anything like mine was it caused some headaches. In any case, the team is in full rebuild mode and will likely be tanking for more high picks again going into next season. As it currently stands, Baltimore overpays four players, second highest in the league to only Philadelphia, which accounts for 20% of their total roster, a total that is also second worst only ahead of Philadelphia. The team underpays just over a third of their roster, a total that is well ahead of the Liberty and also manages to surpass Yellowknife, an outcome that honestly surprised me. They have 9 players who are paid at their current minimum, a total that makes up just under half their total roster for the season. As an interesting aside, Baltimore comes into the season tied with Honolulu and San Jose for the fewest total players on their roster with 20.
Every other team has managed to underpay their roster on a whole. The team next team up is Yellowknife, who have managed to underpay their collective roster by $5 million. The Wraiths have only three players that are overpaid. Those players make up 14.3% of their current roster, which is good for tenth best in the league. They have managed to underpay six of their 21 players, which is good for 28.6% of their roster and is the second lowest percentage in the entire league. Yellowknife does, however, have the third highest percentage of players who are paid at their current minimum with 57.1% of the roster being paid at the “correct” level. Yellowknife’s biggest savings come from underpaying Big Slammu and Kai Sakura by $2 million each. Unlike Baltimore and Philly, the team is not overpaying a player by more than $1 million.
New Orleans follows Yellowknife by underpaying their roster by a collective $8 million. Of the 21 players on their roster, only three are overpaid. That comes out to 14.3%, which is good for a tie with Yellowknife for tenth highest in the league. New Orleans manages, though, to underpay nine of their 21 players, coming out to 42.9% of their roster, good for eighth in the league in terms of percentage. The remaining nine players are paid at their current minimum. Most of New Orleans’ savings come from paying Mr. Forty-Two and Vincent Jones $2 million apiece under their current minimum expectation. No player currently on their roster is overpaid by more than $1 million. That’s a small trend I’ve noticed between the last two teams. When these teams do overpay someone, it is usually by a small amount and the overpay is covered by other players who are underpaid by $2 million.
The next team up is Honolulu, who are currently underpaying their roster by a collective $9 million. Honolulu is the second team with only twenty players on their roster. Of those twenty, the Hahalua overpay three, putting them 12th in terms of the percent of their roster that is overpaid. Exactly half their roster is underpaid, putting the team total at 50%, good enough to lift them to third. The remaining seven players are paid at their current minimum. Like the previous two teams, the Hahalua manage to wrack up significant savings by paying a couple players $2 million under their current minimum. Those two players are Cobra Kai and Asher Mountain. The Hahalua, unlike the previous two, also have a player in Griffin Porter that is overpaid by $2 million. All the other players are either even or fall in at +/- $1 million.
Next up are my home team, the Colorado Yeti. The Yeti have managed to underpay their roster of 21 players by a combined $10 million. Only two of the 21 players are overpaid on the roster, making 9.5% of the roster overpaid. That is good for the eight lowest total in the league. The 10 players who are underpaid make up 47.6% of the roster, giving the Yeti the sixth highest percent of the roster that is underpaid. The remaining 9 players are paid at their current required minimum. Colorado’s biggest savings rest on the back of Rusty Rucker, the 846 TPE linebacker who is still only being paid $2 million. The only two players who were overpaid are both relatively new additions to the roster from free agency. Those two are tight end Frank Michell and the beloved offensive lineman Dorfus Jimbo Jr.
Next up we have two teams who have both managed to underpay their rosters by $11 million. Up first we will examine the Sabercats. San Jose has managed to only overpay a single player, the fewest we have seen so far. That one player makes up 5% of their roster and puts their percentage of overpaid players at the sixth lowest in the league. Half of their roster is underpaid, bringing them into a tie for the third highest percentage of the roster being paid under their minimum contract values. The remaining nine players are all paid at their current minimum. San Jose gets big savings from wide receiver Tychondrius Hood, offensive lineman Jaja Ding dong, and safety Brendan Lanier. They are the first team we have seen so far to have three players underpaid by more than $1 million. The one player picking the team’s pocket is S28 cornerback Juno Hu.
Rounding out the tie at $11 million under are the Austin Copperheads. Austin has 24 players on their roster, the second most we have seen so far behind only Philadelphia. Like the Sabercats, the Copperheads only overpay a single player. They managed to underpay half their roster, though, bringing them into the three-way tie for third highest percentage of the roster taking under their minimum contract. The remaining seven players are paid at their current minimum values. Unlike San Jose, the Copperheads do not have a single player that is over or underpaid by more or less than $1 million. Most other teams have at least one player who is under by $2 million, but the Copperheads have not managed this feat. The one overpaid player is the S23 cornerback Leseasn Paris Crooks.
As if normal ties weren’t fun enough, the next teams up are in a three way tie. I will be discussing them in order they appear on my spreadsheet. I’m not entirely sure what secondary characteristics it sorted on, so I’m sorry if that bothers you. First up in this tie will be Sarasota. The Sailfish are fielding a roster of 24 players this season. Only one of those is overpaid, bringing the team into fourth with only 4.2% of their roster being overpaid. 10 of the 24 are underpaid, bringing the team’s total to 41.7% of the roster and knocking the Sailfish into tenth best in that regard. The remaining 13 players are paid at the proper minimum for their TPE. The Sailfish get big savings coming out of Ernest Lover and Harrison Andrews. Lover is still being paid only $1.5 million despite being 736 TPE at the time of this writing while Andrews is paid $3 million despite being over 1k TPE. The team’s only overpaid player is Thad Pennington Jr. and it’s a small overpay, with the S24 OL only making $500k more than his minimum.
Moving right along to the next team in the three-way tie brings us to the Orange County Otters. Their roster will feature an impressive 27 players going into next season. Of those, only one player is overpaid, putting the Otters at 3.7% of their roster falling into the overpaid category. That figure is good for a tie for the second best percentage in the league. The 11 players the Otters have underpaid comprise 40.7% of the roster, a total that is good for the 10th largest percent of the roster being overpaid currently. The remaining 15 players are paid at the appropriate minimum. The Otters have the fourth highest percentage of their roster being paid the exact dollar figure of their minimum contract. The most team friendly contract for the Otters belongs to their 1,011 TPE linebacker Joseph Joestar. The one player swiping a little extra off the top is offensive lineman Future Trunks.
The final team in that aforementioned tie are the Arizona Outlaws. The Outlaws also have a roster featuring 27 players in the upcoming season. Of al the teams, Arizona stands out as the only team that does not have a single player that is currently paid higher than they need to be. The entire roster is either paid at or below their minimum. They only underpay ten of their players. Those ten make up 37% of their roster, slotting them all the way down into 11th in terms of teams with the highest percentage of their roster being underpaid. The remaining 17 players comprise 63% of their roster and are paid at their current minimum. As a team, the Outlaws have the highest percentage of players at their current minimum and the lowest percentage of overpaid players. Both Taro Raimon and DB Jadakiss are paid $2 million under their current minimum. Honestly for a team that has managed to not overpay a single player, I was expecting the Outlaws to have a few more players that were underpaid.
The next team managed to just slightly outperform the previous three, coming in at $12.5 million under. The New York Silverbacks are third from the top in terms of the sheer dollar amount they are underpaying their players, despite having fewer opportunities to do so with only 22 players on their roster. Three of those 22 are overpaid, putting 13.6% of their roster into that category. 12 of their players are underpaid, putting the percentage of underpaid players on their roster at 54.5%, which is good for second best in the league. The GMs there really have managed to do something special in terms of not paying their players. The remaining seven are paid at the current minimum. New York gets big savings from safeties Bob Roberts and Dogwood Maple. The team does not have a player that is overpaid by more than $1 million.
Moving on up brings us to the second best team at robbing their players: The Chicago Butchers. The Butchers will also trot out 27 players for next season and are only overpaying one of them. 3.7% of your players being overpaid is the second lowest total, behind only Arizona’s 0%. The Butchers have managed to underpay 12, bringing the percentage of their players in that category to 44.4%, which is good for seventh highest. The remaining 14 players are paid at their current minimum. The butchers get big savings from defensive End Von Hayes and linebacker Juan Domine. The only overpaid player is running back Baby Yoda. With a name like that, I’m all for tossing them a little extra cash.
The team that has managed to pay its players the least is the Berline FireSalamanders at $18 million under. What interested me most is that it’s not even close between Berlin and Chicago. The gap between those two teams is a full five million, the difference a 1,000+ TPE player makes at full cost. That’s some incredible savings from the Berlin GMs. Berlin overpays two of their 23 players, coming in at 8.7% of the roster in the overpaid category. They have underpaid 65.2% of their roster, which leads the league (obviously). Nearly two thirds of their roster is being paid under the current minimums. Only six are paid at their minimum level, making up 26.1% of the roster and being the team with the fewest players coming in even. Berlin’s biggest savings come from wide receivers Cmon Skiuuup (great name, btw) and Achtfunf and linebackers Adam Schell and BamBam McMullet. The two players getting a little extra are Joseph Petrongolo and Susan Cash Jr. Berlin’s ability to short its players is certainly impressive.
Here are the totals for how much each team under/over paid their players:
-18,000,000 -13,000,000 -12,500,000 -12,000,000 -11,000,000 -10,000,000 -9,000,000 -8,000,000 -5,000,000 2,500,000If you’ve made it this far, congrats! You’re about 2,700 words in. Because I want more money and think this will also be interesting, we’re going to continue into analysis of which positions are most frequently over or under paid. Keep in mind this data is still coming from the bank, but now includes people who are under contract with a team but are currently stashed in the DSFL and waiting their time to be called up.
Let’s start with QBs. By my count, there were 22 QBs under contract in some shape or form. Of those 22, 9 were under paid (40.9%), only 2 were overpaid (9.1%), and 11 (50%) were paid in line with their minimum. This should not be surprising. QB is a highly competitive position with most of the people signing up to play there under the assumption that they’re going to max earn and stick it out with one team. Especially with positions where nearly everyone is expected to get to well over 1k TPE, it makes sense that most would be at their minimum and not over or below it. Once you hit 1k, it’s impossible to extend someone below the $5 million pricetag. Most QBs will likely go well beyond that mark and will end up on those monster $5 million deals.
I picked up on 50 eligible wide receivers. Of those 50, 24 are underpaid (48%), 9 are overpaid (18%), and 17 are paid at their current minimum (34%). If you want to be paid more than the minimum, wide receiver isn’t your best bet either. There are twice the players at WR making over the minimum than there are at QB, but it’s still less than 1/5 that are getting the bonus checks while the rest are at or below their minimum. And there is a higher percentage of WRs under the minimum than there are at QB.
I picked up on 48 eligible running backs. Of those, 12 are underpaid (25%), 11 are overpaid (22.9%), and 25 are making their current minimum salary (52.1%). At a quick glance, running back definitely seems like a decent position to make more than the minimum. By my count, nearly a quarter are overpaid across the board and more than half are at least making their minimum value. That’s the largest proportion making the minimum salary so far and the smallest being underpaid by a wide margin. I do wonder how many of those are stashed away in the DSFL where the team doesn’t have to really think about their salary, since it doesn’t count against the cap and will be covered by the base DSFL salary that all players take while they wait for their callups.
I counted 21 eligible tight ends. Six of those were underpaid (28.6%), 3 are overpaid (14.3%), and 12 are paid at their current minimum (57.1%). Tight ends are one of the hardest to come by players. The only position where I counted fewer eligible players were kickers with 20. As such, I would almost expect that teams might be willing to pay a bit of a premium for quality tight end play. While the situation here is still better than QBs or RBs in terms of being underpaid, the situation is worse in terms of being overpaid (except for QBs, but as mentioned before it seems rare to me that a team would want to overpay their QB).
There were 42 eligible offensive linemen. OL is a pretty interesting position since getting to a decent TPE total and a few years of positional experience will make a human player both substantially better and cheaper than a bot OL. Of the 42 eligible OL, 12 are underpaid (28.6%), 7 are overpaid (16.7%), and 23 are paid at their current minimum (54.8%). Offensive linemen are pretty well off in terms of making at least their minimum. Only three other percentages have a higher percentage of players at that position being paid the appropriate minimum salary and just over a quarter are paid below the minimum. You could definitely do worse if you don’t mind having pancakes and sacks allowed be your only meaningful stats.
I counted 30 eligible defensive tackles. Of those, 10 were underpaid (33.3%), 1 was overpaid (3.3%), and 19 were paid at their appropriate minimum (63.3%). If you want to sit at but not below the medium, defensive tackle is the way to go for you. Nearly two thirds of all defensive tackles are paid exactly what the rulebook says their minimum should be. Unfortunately only one (ONE) is overpaid. While overpaying players in general isn’t very common, it’s especially not common at defensive tackle. You will not be overpaid at this position. A third even are paid below the current minimum.
I counted 37 defensive ends that fit the criteria. Of those, 15 are underpaid (40.5%), 5 are overpaid (13.5%), and 17 are paid right at their minimum (45.9%). Defensive tackle is definitely better than defensive end if you want to be paid a decent salary. They have one of the higher percentages of players who are paid below the minimum and are towards the middle or lower in terms of being paid over or at your current minimum.
There were 53 linebackers that fit the criteria. Linebacker is a pretty popular position to play and one that is incredibly important to a defense. Of those, 28 were underpaid (52.8%), 8 were overpaid (15.1%), and 17 were paid at their current minimum (32.1%). Linebackers are chronically underpaid. More than half the people currently at the position are making less money than the rulebook says they should be based on their current TPE. Still, they aren’t terrible in terms of the proportion of linebackers being overpaid. Where they really suffer is the precent that are currently making their minimum. More than 80% of the linebackers are making their minimum or less.
I counted 50 cornerbacks that met the criteria I was looking for. Of those, 17 are underpaid (34%), 10 are overpaid (20%), and 23 are paid exactly what their minimum says they should be (46%). Cornerback isn’t a bad route to go if you’re looking to be overpaid. They have the third highest percentage of players being overpaid and a relatively low percentage of players being underpaid. You could definitely do worse.
There were 42 safeties I took a look at. Of those, 17 are underpaid (40.5%), only 5 are overpaid (11.9%), and 20 are paid exactly what they should be (47.6%). Safeties are one of the most underpaid positions. So far, they are underpaid less than LBs, QBs, and WRs. If you want the big paychecks from the team, safety probably isn’t the way to go. They are also one of the least likely to be overpaid and nearly half of all safeties are just sitting at the minimum.
Finally, we arrive at the 20 kickers and punters that I looked at. Of those, only 1 is underpaid (5%), 7 are overpaid (35%), and 12 are paid at the current minimum (60%). If you want to be overpaid according to the current minimums in the rulebook, create at kicker! Over a third of all kickers are overpaid and in the entire league only one single kicker makes below the minimum. For anyone looking to make their team foot the bill for their weekly trainings, please seriously consider creating at kicker. There are fewer kickers around the league than QBs right now and kicker makes you more likely to have a few extra bucks tossed your way.
https://imgur.com/a/od3ZnCt
Finally, I want to take a quick moment to discuss something I found interesting. If we make a scatterchart to look at the dollar amount a team was over or underpaying and the total TPE on that team (per the tracker as of the day this was posted), we see what looks to be a pretty strong relationship. I’m not a data specialist by any means, but I did find this interesting and wanted to include a little graphic for y’all to admire. Someone who knows better can definitely tell me off for being an idiot, but there seems to be a relatively strong relationship between underpaying your players and having more TPE on the team.
While I’m not really sure at this time that I have a better system, I would definitely like to see this addressed in some way. The vast majority of players in the league are either taking minimum contracts or are signing extensions that will see them playing below their minimum into the future. I know there are teams and players that will selectively earn in order to get as much TPE while playing on as low a contract as possible going into the future. I wish the minimum values laid out in the rulebook were treated more like an actual minimum and less like the target value for most player contract. It would be cool to see some sort of a system that bases contract on the players’ on-field performance from the last few seasons and the value they produce for the team instead of TPE. I’m not sure how practical that idea is, but I’d love to hear more ideas on how we can make this system work more for the players and turn it into less of a game of paying players as little as possible for as long as possible.
If you’ve made it all the way through this, thank you! I believe this is my longest article to date and I think it’s relatively interesting. I hope at least a few of you feel similarly. I look forward to the new season and getting back to some of the midseason updates and power rankings. Have a wonderful day, friends!
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