Cleveland Browns moneyball strategy taking form

The true values of the Cleveland Browns front office can be partially discerned by following the Moneyball trail.

Although Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry has only been on the job a few months, we are starting to learn about his philosophy of team building and Moneyball. Namely, how do you build the best possible team, given the limitations imposed by a salary cap.? This is not like baseball, where the richest team can just buy the best players, and pretty much guarantee a contender.

In the NFL, it is all about value. What players offer the most ability to contribute to a winner, for the lowest price? To conduct an audit of the financials of team building, salary information was obtained from  Spotrac.com. Projected player salaries are totaled for each position group and then divided by the estimated number of roster spots for each group, resulting in a representative salary level for players at each position.

The number after the position indicates the estimated number of roster spots that will be used.  For example, DL8 means that there may be eight roster spots for defensive linemen. The number of roster spots must total 53, based on a 53-player regular-season roster.  This is shown graphically in the Tweet below.

The gray bars represent the NFL average salary at each position and the orange bars represent the Browns. To no one’s surprise, quarterbacks are the highest-paid players in the NFL, with defensive linemen a distant second.

Just behind them are offensive linemen, followed by wide receivers. The lowest-paid players are the specialists (punter, kicker, long snapper). Up a notch from specialists are tight ends, running backs, defensive backs, and linebackers.