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This Brees Contract situation is likely the most polarizing topic on SR in years. This is a 2015 article, but it brings up some powerful stats.
So having an expensive elite NFL QB does not translate into lots of SBs. In the last 20 years, only 20% of those teams won SBs.
I personally am not ready for the Brees show to end, but it sure explains the talent problems we are having. And when we combine the major mistakes in FA and draft, the picture is clear.
There's a real nice table in the link, but it looks like the NFL has reached relative parity and it ain't easy to be the Pats. And it ain't easy to win multiple SBS with expensive QBs.
Paying quarterbacks big can make winning in the NFL hard - SBNation.com
Finding a good quarterback isn't easy in the NFL and keeping a good quarterback is expensive. Many teams are faced with no choice but to open up the pocketbooks in a big way to keep an above-average quarterback from escaping in free agency, but paying so much can make building a winning team difficult.
In the last 20 seasons, only four teams won the Super Bowl with a quarterback eating up more than 10 percent of the team's salary cap. Steve Young owns the record for biggest percentage of a team's cap space for a Super Bowl winner when he received 13.1 of the pay for the San Francisco 49ers in 1994.
Yet, when the 2015 season begins there are 13 teams scheduled to pay their starter more than 10 percent of the $143.28 million salary cap set in March. That number could go up soon, too, if Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks receives the big payday that he's hoping for.
So having an expensive elite NFL QB does not translate into lots of SBs. In the last 20 years, only 20% of those teams won SBs.
I personally am not ready for the Brees show to end, but it sure explains the talent problems we are having. And when we combine the major mistakes in FA and draft, the picture is clear.
Nobody is eating up space like Drew Brees, though. Nearly a fifth of the salary cap for the Saints will be dedicated to the team's nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback, which is a bad formula, historically. However, there isn't much alternative for New Orleans, which has to cling to Brees if the team hopes to have any chance at a good year in 2015.
The rising salary cap has afforded teams more luxury to dedicate bigger contracts to quarterbacks without crippling the rest of the team. That means teams like the Carolina Panthers and Miami Dolphins won't be hampered too badly by huge deals given to Cam Newton and Ryan Tannehill, respectively, which will both balloon to register cap hits of more than $20 million in 2017.
Still, history has shown that teams not anchored by a big contract at quarterback are better positioned to win the Super Bowl. Yet it's the Green Bay Packers, with Aaron Rodgers accounting for 12.74 percent of the team's salary cap, who enter the 2015 season with the best odds to take home the Lombardi Trophy.
There's a real nice table in the link, but it looks like the NFL has reached relative parity and it ain't easy to be the Pats. And it ain't easy to win multiple SBS with expensive QBs.
Paying quarterbacks big can make winning in the NFL hard - SBNation.com