The Philadelphia Eagles Players Contracts Remind Me Why It's Better To Be Frugal

[tmoneyearlyretiree]

I just wrote another blog post about the terrible contracts of bradford, murray, and maxwell of the Eagles. They are making many millions while other players are producing at elite levels on $500,000 a year contracts. I think there's a lot to relate to the moneyball approach the Tampa Bay Rays used and mustachianism. Basically when you spend less on an item, the consumer surplus is likely way more than when you drop big dollars on something you have high expectations for. If you want to read the full post you can click on the website below.

But in general I think the only players it might make sense to pay max contracts are ones like a Andrew Luck, Aaron Rodgers, or other elite level QB whose value in wins added to the team is even higher than the already crazy high amount of money he gets paid. So sports are a case in point why its best to not spend and look for value.

[nakedput]

I agree with the moneyball approach in that you look for guys that provide value through the use of statistics, percentages, etc, but it is well known that the teams with the highest salaries typically win or almost win championships. Look at basketball. There are very few football players who are producing at elite levels on 500k contracts. And this is unheard of in basketball as well. The best players get paid the most. It's how it works.

[tooqk4u22]

Moneyball is great for filling in a few pieces but not for the whole team.....eagles are learning the hard way. With some of those contracts it doesn't seem like they are playing money ball, but they are given the short term nature or ability to cut if needed. 

The expectation (hope) was that they would all play to max potential to earn new contracts. They cut a significant amount of talent with higher longer term contracts or those that were expecting them....you get what you pay for.

That said, in football (unlike baseball and basketball) you still need more than high paid elits...just look at Washington and Dallas that have a history of that..

[tmoneyearlyretiree]

I was (and still am) a little worried (and hopeful) that Murray, Bradford, and Maxwell can make that post obsolete and make me look like an adiot. My main question though is why do you take a guy like Foles who has one year left on a tiny rookie deal and not milk that with money spent elsewhere on the football team? You can write off the Maxwell failure as a necessary risk for a glaring weakness in the secondary and the Murray failure as not having a scheme fit in the running game for north south style first. You can also say that just paying Murray to not play for Dallas was a good decision. However, adding an expensive franchise QB pay level guy doesnt seem to make rational investment sense to me. Maybe someone with more understanding of the salary cap rules can explain

[Psychstache]

A. I told my wife after week 4 last year that Murray was not coming back to the Cowboys and I was 100% okay with that.

B. I'm inclined to blame Kelly for having a system not compatible with the NFL more than some individual players. Plus, giving him full control when he is coming from a system that lets you pay players whatever you want as long as it is done discreetly through your boosters ;)

C. I don't think a moneyball strategy works as well in Football as think it is hard to find misunderstood/undervalued stats or qualities (like OBP was) and 16 games isn't enough time to weed out variance (unlike 486 games or whatever the baseball season is now).

[tmoneyearlyretiree]

what about seattle though? i guess you could chalk that up to luck. Maybe you'd only be able to apply moneyball through the draft since you have a larger sample size (hopefully 24-36 games for players)

truly im shocked at how inept murray has been so far, was it really all the offensive line in dallas?

[tooqk4u22]

My main question though is why do you take a guy like Foles who has one year left on a tiny rookie deal and not milk that with money spent elsewhere on the football team?

Ummmmm....because Chip wanted Marcus Mariotta and Bradford got dropped on him.

You can write off the Maxwell failure as a necessary risk for a glaring weakness in the secondary and the Murray failure as not having a scheme fit in the running game for north south style first.

Only explanation for Maxwell is that they were will to do and pay anything to upgrade....oooops.

You can also say that just paying Murray to not play for Dallas was a good decision. However, adding an expensive franchise QB pay level guy doesnt seem to make rational investment sense to me. Maybe someone with more understanding of the salary cap rules can explain

Murray needs to execute the play better....its not chips scheme or play calling :)

[redbirdfan]

I don't think any NFL teams are really allowed to be frugal.  As a Rams fan, thanks for taking Bradford off our hands.  His pre-rookie salary cap deal was for six years, just about $80M with $50M guaranteed.  The combination of a bad O-line and a QB with knee and shoulder issues resulted in about what you'd expect.  Maybe Chip Kelly can keep him on the field (assuming that would be considered a good thing).

Seattle got lucky initially with a few late round draft picks/undrafted free agents that made good, but you end up paying no matter what (see current contracts of Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Bobby Wagner and the attempted hold out of Kam Chancellor).  I suppose it is better to pay for good play already received than overpay in advance and hope for the best.  I think the Patriots are the closest thing to a frugal NFL team  in the league.  They have a revolving door of a supporting cast signed to reasonable or undervalued contracts and still seem to win (the cheating might help). 

[tmoneyearlyretiree]

im not an expert on nfl contracts, but the thing they did with restructuring bradys contract so that he got paid less but was somehow still ok for him was genius. It allowed them to keep key pieces and be really competitive. meanwhile, the peyton manning situation isnt looking as good