Since my last article was related to Value, i.e., the goal of the Draft Process is to ultimately get value by way of considering both the BPA and needs of a team, then this article will also focus on value.

When you think about managing a team or organization, you must consider that you live in a finite world, i.e., you only have so much money to go around. When you look at a company in any business, the guys that are the most valuable, (excluding nepotism), are the guys that make the most money.

Now when you build a successful NFL organization, one of the "Big Picture" strategies must be "since I only have so much money to spend, (Both Salary Cap wise, and Operating Capital wise), then I should think clearly before hand just how I am going to allocate the bigger pieces of the pie, both as to the players and the positions.

Now, to begin we must realize that even if the kicker is your best player, he should not be paid the most money because that is not where you want to focus when building Superbowl level talent.

Lets start by assigning letter grades to all players, A thru D, you dont want any "F" players, and you certainly want to get rid of any "D" players as soon as you can. With that in mind as a starting point, let us look at a few scenarios by applying the old tried and true, 80-20 rule. Do you want to spend 80 percent of your salary cap on "B" or "C" players, and the other 20 percent on your "A" players, or the other way around?

Next, you have to realize that before you make those kind of decisions, you must first decide which positions are the most valuable and in what order. Then once that is established you can decide which players at those positions should be paid with the 80 percent money or the 20 percent money.

For example, do I want to have my backups be all "C" quality players,so I can invest the 80% in "A" and "B" players, or do I want to spend 80 percent on all "A" players and have no "B" players, but rather all the remaining players be "C" players. So,once you decide all that, you can then decide just how many "A" players you can afford, and then apply the 20 percent to what is left. The Packers want to have a lot of their money allocated to backups, ie, they want a lot of "B" players and only a few "A" players and no "C" players, (At least that is how it looks to me), and that limits the amount of "star" or "A" players they can afford.

Keep in mind that not all teams spend all of their cap money and that plays into it as well.

So, with all that said, first here is the latest among of money that is being spent by each team as of the beginning of this year: (Boy you have to just love Jerry Jones the Owner!)

Team Salaries:
http://www.altiusdirectory.com/Sports/nfl-salaries.php

And here are a few more of those kind of stats:

Average Salary By Position.
1. QB 1.97 mil  
2. DE 1.58  
3. OL 1.26  
4. DT 1.22  
5. CB 1.19  
6. LB 1.17  
7. WR 1.05  
8. RB .957  
9. S  .947  
10.K  .868  
11.TE .863 
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/average-nfl-salary-by-position.html

Franchise Tag Salaries (Top 5 salaries at each position)

1. QB  16   Mil
2. CB  14   Mil
3. DE  12.9 Mil
4. DT  12.5 Mil
5. WR  11.3 Mil
6. OL  10.1 Mil
7. LB  10   Mil
8. RB  9.5  Mil
9. S   8.8  Mil
10.TE  7.3  Mil
11.K   3.1  Mil
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d81e4d644/article/potential-franchisetag-numbers-highlighted-by-increase-for-dts

"The significant jump for defensive tackles is largely fueled by the $21 million bonus that Albert Haynesworth received from the Washington Redskins last spring."

"Some teams opted to place large bonuses and higher salaries in 2010, assuming an uncapped year, which turned out to be the case. That led to jumps in some position groups, while others project to stay stable or even slightly decrease."

And one more chart:

From: http://cowboyszone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=220666

Notice the number of players making less than a million dollars. I wonder how those numbers fit with the 80-20 rule?

Aren't teams kind of saying that the value they place on positions are obvious because of the salaries they are paying? Well yes, and no, and I will leave that one for you guys to point out the obvious, as to why those numbers are skewed.

Next with regard to which positions are the most valuable and in what order, I give you my feelings. (Not saying mine are right and all others are wrong, because they are my opinion, and often you guys are better than I am at figuring out these kind of things:

My Positional Values:

1. Offensive Line - LT, RT, C, G.
2. Defensive Line - NT, DE.
3. QB.
4. DB
5. Rush Linebackers.
6. Safteys - FS, SS.
7. WR
8. RB
9. TE
10. FB
11.Inside Linebackers.
12.Kickers.
13.Long Snapper.

Keep in mind that some teams just "go with the flow" and take what comes along, that is they just pay the going rate to the guys they want to keep, without regard to the overall strategy as to the outline above, but it is my belief that the good teams consider this long range strategy before they get too far along in their organizational goals and plans.

UPDATE:

To make sure I am clear, the Offensive line as a group is the most important in my opinion. I am not talking about a single player.

There you have it, I spilled my beans, as they say.....