League Winners Salary Cap Usage Versus Average Teams

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By Steven Van Tassell

With the first 2021 start-up drafts coming this weekend on May 8th, it’s time to finish up the series on how Dynasty Owners should put together their rosters on Draft Day. In the last article (https://dynastyowner.com/2021/04/league-winners-and-how-they-used-the-salary-cap/), we found out several new things to add to our list, such as:

• It is not necessary to outspend the other teams in your League to win. League Winners were actually more likely to be in the bottom half of spending in their individual league

• 2020 League Winners spent more on Wide Receivers than any other position

• How much the average League Winner spent of the $110 million salary cap in 2020 was calculated. Those percentages were used to project how much the average start-up League Winner will spend on each position during their 2021 draft at the new salary cap of $127.75 million. 

Now that we have those data, especially spending by position, we can see how League Winners compare to the “average” team in their League. We know that most of them didn’t outspend the other teams in their League, but what about by individual position? It’s possible that League Winners outspent the other teams on some positions, but not others. 

We aren’t able to compare the position salaries for each individual team per league, but instead added up all draft spending by position then divided by 12 teams to arrive at the “average” team spending.

All salary data listed are from the 2020 Dynasty Owner season which had a $110 million salary cap on Draft Day, but was increased to $112 million for rosters due to COVID-19 considerations. 

Position to Spend the Most Money On

Even though QBs are the highest paid players on the football field, we found that over two-thirds (69%) of League Winners spent the most amount of their Draft Day salary cap on WRs. However, in only two Leagues (For the Love of the Game Leagues #27452 and #31252) did the average spent by all teams in the league on QBs exceed the amount spent on WRs.  What to make of this finding?

This makes sense when you think about the fact that average spending by all teams has to account for 12 teams. Not every team can spend less than $10 million on QBs and have a starting QB or two so they can compete to win. Eventually, somebody is going to have to take the more expensive QBs out there and therefore, increase the average spending by all teams. The same goes for the rest of the positions. 

Narrower Bands of Spending by Position

Another finding was discovered because we analyzed all teams in all leagues is that the spending by position was in narrower ranges when all teams in the league are factored in, not just the league winner. While we had League Winners spending as little as $3.045 million on QBs, $3.5 million on RBs, $16.6 million on WRs, $1.4 million on TEs and just $585,000 on kickers during their draft, that’s not possible when including all 12 teams. At the same time, it’s also not possible for all teams to spend as much as some League Winners did on QBs ($54.5 million), RBs ($44.66 million), WRs ($71.6 million), TEs ($28.4 million) and kickers ($12.14 million). 

As a result, the league average spending fell into a couple of narrow ranges when all 12 teams are included. The average league spending by team on QBs was between $20 million and $40 million, between $15 million to $20 million on RBs, between $30 million to $50 million on WRs, between $5 million to $15 million on TEs and between $3 million to $10 million on kickers.

Since individual League Winners can go much higher or lower than the League average in spending by individual position, we should look at what the average team in a league spent and compare it to what the League Winner spent. Which position or positions had more Draft Day salary cap spent on them by League Winners and which ones had less?

Positional Spending by League Winners Compared to League Average

We already know that League Winners spent a little bit less during their drafts, on average, than all teams did. It is almost $441,000 less overall. However, there are five positions in Dynasty Owner (QB, RB, WR, TE, K) so it’s possible that League Winners spent more at certain positions versus the league average and less at others. The data show that League Winners tended to overspend the average more for WRs, TEs and kickers and underspend on QBs and RBs.

The numbers aren’t very telling as the widest gap was for RBs and the split is still 59% vs. 41%. There wasn’t a particular position that League Winners targeted for additional spending versus the “average” team in their League.

There was no pattern in terms of how much more League Winners spent at a position. There are League Winners who spent almost 90% less than the “average” team at a position on Draft Day and still won. At the other end of the spectrum, a few League Winners spent more than double what the “average” team in their league spent on RBs, TEs and kickers during their drafts and still had enough to spend on other positions to win. The biggest fluctuations occurred at TE and kicker, but since less in salary was spent overall on both of those positions, having a significantly higher or lower amount spent by one team is more likely than at QB and WR, positions that have much higher salaries and more players drafted that have higher salary players.

Average Salary Cap Usage by Position

While all of the teams in a league are spending similar amounts on players at each position, it’s possible that the “average” team spending could be more or less than what the League Winner spent. There could be positions that League Winners did a better job of drafting and spent less at, while still being crowned the Champion.  After all, they spent less overall on average, so maybe there is a position or two that they exploited more than others.

The breakdown of salary cap usage for the average team in a League by position is as follows:

On average, over one-third (36%) of the salary cap in a league was spent on WRs, followed by a little over one-quarter (26%) on QBs and one-sixth (17%) on RBs. The “average” team in a League spent just a little bit more on TEs (9%) than they left unspent (8%) and spent well under 5% on kickers. 

In dollar figures using the $110 million salary cap, the average amount spent on Draft Day by the average team in each League in 2020 was:

Compared to the League Winners, we find dramatic differences in league “average” spending at two positions (QB and K), while almost no difference at all in RB spending. 

In pure dollar figures, League Winners spent over $2.9 million less on QBs than the “average” team in their league. It appears that, as assumed and speculated, one of the keys to winning your Dynasty Owner league is drafting an affordable and productive QB to lead your team. QB scoring is at a premium in Dynasty Owner, so it stands to reason that the highest scoring player on your team (QB) has a lower Dynasty Dollars to Points ratio (DD/PT), then your team will be better. 

To illustrate this, we can look at two QBs with similar salaries and ADPs but much different DD/PT costs and see which QB was drafted by more League Winners. The QBs are Josh Allen ($5.3 million in salary; 25.3 ADP) and Daniel Jones ($6.4 million in salary; 44.6 ADP). Allen got his Dynasty Owners far more points overall (516.1 for Allen vs. 210.8 for Jones) and cost almost three times less on a per point basis ($10,261 DD/PT for Allen vs. $30,436 for Jones). That’s why so many more League Winners drafted Josh Allen than Daniel Jones (19% drafted Allen vs. 7% for Jones).

Conclusion

After figuring out that League Winners didn’t necessarily outspent the other teams in their league overall on Draft Day and how much on average they spent at each position to win, the next step was to break down the spending by position in comparison to the other teams in their league. What we found was League Winners spent more than 10% less on QBs than the “average” team in their league. In dollar figures, that was over $2.9 million less. 

Another important finding to help you construct your 2021 Dynasty Owner start-up roster. With all of these findings plus the analysis you get from the Dynasty Owner writing team, everyone in a start-up league should be ready to get drafting their teams. That can happen as soon as this weekend for new leagues. Existing leagues will need to wait until May 28th for rookie drafts to begin.

Regardless of your league, Dynasty Owner has great content coming to help you win your league and a new publication schedule for the weekly articles and videos that will provide the information you need. A few new videos to accompany the weekly articles have been posted and more are coming every week from now on. All of the articles and videos will be released at 1 PM (Eastern). My articles and videos to get you ready for your 2021 Dynasty Owner start-up league team will be released on Saturdays throughout the off-season. Keep an eye out for new articles from the rest of our team of Dynasty Owner writers as well. Nate Christian (@NateNFL) will talk about rookies on Tuesdays. Matt Morrison – The Jerk (@Dynastyjerk) is doing a deep dive into contracts by teams that you can check out on Wednesdays. Jay Pounds (@jaypoundsnfl) looks at how to rebuild your Dynasty Owner roster and everyone will get his insights on Fridays. 

Please read all of their articles and follow the four of us plus Dynasty Owner (@Dynasty_Owner) on Twitter. Hopefully this article is helpful as you prepare for your upcoming Dynasty Owner start-up draft, some of which are happening this weekend (May 8th). Thanks, and have a great day!

Steven Van Tassell is the Head of Content for Dynasty Owner 

Follow us on Twitter: @SteveVT33 and @Dynasty_Owner