Putting to bed the "Ralph is cheap" stuff

[Dr. Lecter]

In 2008, the Bills were 16th in total payroll.

http://content.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/salaries/totalpayroll.aspx?year=2008

In 2007 they were 4th.

http://content.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/salaries/totalpayroll.aspx?year=2007

In 2006 they were fairly low 30th

http://content.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/salaries/totalpayroll.aspx?year=2006

In 2005 17th

http://content.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/salaries/totalpayroll.aspx?year=2005

In 2004, 19th

http://content.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/salaries/totalpayroll.aspx?year=2004

Interestingly enough, take a good look at 2008

The top 5 teams were Oakland, Dallas, Minnesota, Cleveland and New Orleans

The bottom 5 were Green Bay, Indianapolis, New England, Baltimore and Kansas City.

Which group is better?

Does this prove Robert Kraft is cheap?

[TheMan08]

Re: Putting to bed the "Ralph is cheap" stuff

He is cheap, but smart.

We aren't cheap, we are dumb. Pay the wrong guys.

[ddaryl]

Re: Putting to bed the "Ralph is cheap" stuff

Ralph however has become cheap on coaches and FO personel, and in his latter years he tends to go with the unproven controllable coach over the proven spendy HC

Ralph has paid players, but his FO choices for the most part have paid the wrong players, and hired the wrong coaches... probably with Ralphs meddling hands in the pie

[Lexwhat]

Re: Putting to bed the "Ralph is cheap" stuff

With all due respect Lecter, the overall payroll can be a VERY deceiving stat. It varies from year to year because they want to be compliant with the salary cap.

If you really want to know about how an owner spends, look at the amount he invests in the front office (president, general manager, head coach, coaching staff, and scouting team).

[SABURZFAN]

Re: Putting to bed the "Ralph is cheap" stuff

too cheap to pay Bruce Smith..... too cheap to pay Pat Williams..... too cheap to pay for a top notch football guy to run the team...... too cheap to pay for a HC who knows how to get the most out of his players.....


overpays John Fina.... overpays Schobel..... overpays Kelsay..... overpays Dockery.... overpays more schmoes.....

hires Tom Donna Ho..... hires Gregg Williams...... hires Mike Mularkey....... miserable ownership....





it's a combination of overpaying the wrong people, letting the wrong people go, and putting incompetent people in important positions.

[Dr. Lecter]

Re: Putting to bed the "Ralph is cheap" stuff

The intent of this thread is not say he has paid the right guys.

It is to dispel the silliness that he is not willing to pay players.

[SABURZFAN]

Re: Putting to bed the "Ralph is cheap" stuff

The intent of this thread is not say he has paid the right guys.

It is to dispel the silliness that he is not willing to pay players.

i don't think that the last 5-6 years make up for the first 40 years either.

[Lexwhat]

Re: Putting to bed the "Ralph is cheap" stuff

The intent of this thread is not say he has paid the right guys.

It is to dispel the silliness that he is not willing to pay players.

I don't know about others, but personally, I've forgotten about Jason Peters. As long as we have a viable alternative in place, I'm fine with the Peters move. Let's wait until the season starts to see how our Tackles are performing.

"Ralph is cheap" doesn't just apply to players. It equally applies to the entire coaching staff and front office.

[Lexwhat]

Re: Putting to bed the "Ralph is cheap" stuff

I personally don't think Langston Walker is the solution at LT for a full 16-game season, but I would love to be proven wrong.

[ddaryl]

Re: Putting to bed the "Ralph is cheap" stuff

too cheap to pay Bruce Smith. too cheap to pay Pat Williams

Bruce received numerous pay raises, extended contracts. Bruce would hold out every couple of years and Ralph would relunctantly pay him.. that is until he was on the down side of his career and we moved on.

Pat Williams was a Donahue purge. We didn't want fat guys remember

[Ickybaluky]

Re: Putting to bed the "Ralph is cheap" stuff

It looks like Ralph has been spending more money of late, but was cheaper before that.

Since 2000, the ranks are:

2000 - 16th
2001 - 28th
2002 - 22nd
2003 - 25th
2004 - 19th
2005 - 17th
2006 - 30th
2007 - 4th
2008 - 16th

If you add up the totals overall, the Bills have spend the 3rd lowest among all teams in actual payroll since 2000. They are just ahead of SF and GB. Houston has only been in the NFL 7 seasons, but on average have the highest payroll since 2000.

The order of spenders since 2000: HOU, WAS, PHI, OAK, PIT, SEA, NO, CHI, DAL, STL, ARL, ARI, MIN, IND, NYJ, DET, CLE, BAL, NYG, CAR, CIN, DEN, NE, SD, TB, MIA, JAX, TEN, KC, BUF, SF, GB.

Of course, a factor in that is the cap shape teams were in early in the decade. Some teams, like Ten, SF, Buf, Den and NE had tight cap situations early in the decade because they had borrowed against the cap for years.

If you look at spending over the last 5 years (2004 - 2008), the list is: WAS, MIN, DAL, SEA, NO, IND, HOU, PHI, PIT, OAK, CAR, BAL, NE, CLE, CHI, ARI, DET, STL, NYJ, MIA, JAX, SD, ATL, SF, CIN, BUF, NYG, DEN, TEN, KC, TB, GB.

Looking at that list, Buffalo has been a little cheap, other than the one year of 2007.

[Ickybaluky]

Re: Putting to bed the "Ralph is cheap" stuff

Does this prove Robert Kraft is cheap?

However, the year before that the Patriots spent the 2nd most in the NFL.

[justasportsfan]

Re: Putting to bed the "Ralph is cheap" stuff

he's been cheap this decade

[Ebenezer]

Re: Putting to bed the "Ralph is cheap" stuff

It is not his thriftiness...it is his meddling that gets the Bills in trouble.

[bflobarry]

Re: Putting to bed the "Ralph is cheap" stuff

It is not his thriftiness...it is his meddling that gets the Bills in trouble.

Bingo.