Big spending teams on WRs don't make the playoffs often enough

[blueblood70]

Offense & specifically WR sells tickets for JJ

So does it sell tickets for Seattle, Minnesota, Bengals, I mean the 2 great receivers for the Eagles, they had until recently. didnt SF pay Ayuk and many others before him, yes, they did... I mean how many receivers have the Bears the last couple of years keep adding over there?

Would you like me to list all the teams that have paid number one big money and looked to add more? but that also for other Apparently you miss the fact that this opacity and this was a LONG trend that happened in the NFL. Look it up, We do this all day this is league thing it's not a Jerry thing..

I mean people got all over Jerry or overpaying RBs, And yet there are some other teams making $20 million a year right now...

And apparently Michael Irvin had no impact on Cowboys they should just throw away and replace to the Jag in the 90s lol but also had Harper, and others and were a dynasty.



Some of y'all are straight hypocrites you don't even realize the rest of the league does the same thing, and it had nothing to do with missing on demons everyone's like well there's an ignoring defense, no they simply didn't hit on the side ball.

This is what I I think a team does need a clear number on an elite receiver You need two of them Better pay to leave money to Arcade Top 5 whatever you want to call it.

If there's some here, hypocrites on both sides, some say they won't need high paid wrs , but then the other side are mad at jerry for not signing George pickens to a long term deal, I don't see where Jerry can survive, both sides are telling me to be doing it wrong. lmao

what jerry did with George is perfect, only gave up a 3rd got great year, now FT get one more great year, cash in and get high draft picks trading him, get another young WR in the draft and FLO will be ready to be solid 2 in 27. Pay QW instead.

 

[calicowboy54]

You call him Bellicheat and then you believe what he says? Lol

Why did he sign Moss if it’s so easy to get one from college.

called him belicheat because i can never spell his name

 

[conner01]

WR is easiest position to find in draft IMO. Only reason we should have retained Pickens is they felt they were close to contending and didn’t want to disrupt offense .

And that may very well be the case with Jerry. The best part is it’s one year. We wasn’t taking a WR this year early enough to get a day one starter. The money saved could have paid another player but what player for that price and just one year could we have got

 

[StarBoyz83]

I'll be surprised if the Cowboys don't make the playoffs.

Its for sure possible but im not expecting more than 9 wins.

 

[Cowboys5217]

I'll be surprised if the Cowboys don't make the playoffs.

Were you surprised last year?

 

[Bobhaze]

I'll be surprised if the Cowboys don't make the playoffs.

The last time the Cowboys had a long stretch of non-playoff seasons was 2010-13…three of those seasons were Jason Garrett’s first three as HC.

 

[kramskoi]

The last time the Cowboys had a long stretch of non-playoff seasons was 2010-13…three of those seasons were Jason Garrett’s first three as HC.

Week 14...vs. the Giants in 2011. That business still ticks me off. To blow a 12 point lead with just 5 1/2 minutes remaining was about as ugly as it gets. Win that game and it's very likely that the Giants don't even make the playoffs (from 6-7)...let alone win a damn Superbowl. Any other coach but Coughlin and they sink fast. They had lost 5 straight before Dallas. One of the early elimination games that Garrett couldn't conquer.

 

[SpaceCowboy99]

Too many other factors in play to derive this conclusion. It’s an example of how to use stats to push any agenda. Take Miami for example, that entire team was bad including all the QB’s. So the WR’s get blamed? Doesn’t compute. Appreciate the effort in the thread.

Nah, your wrong, as always. The correlation is the spending heavy on 1-2 positions lessens your ability at other locations, often having to keep mediocre or less talent at some positions.

We are clearly overspending on QB and now having 2 top tier receivers.

We won't see the results until the end of the season but I predict the offense takes a step back this year and we miss the playoffs. Then I can come back and bump this thread for you Rockport.

 

[Flamma]

Week 14...vs. the Giants in 2011. That business still ticks me off. To blow a 12 point lead with just 5 1/2 minutes remaining was about as ugly as it gets. Win that game and it's very likely that the Giants don't even make the playoffs (from 6-7)...let alone win a damn Superbowl. Any other coach but Coughlin and they sink fast. They had lost 5 straight before Dallas. One of the early elimination games that Garrett couldn't conquer.

Was that the game where Romo missed a wide open Austin down the right sideline that would have sealed the game at the end? Some losses I can't forget. If it isn't, then there was another game just like you described.

 

[Flamma]

Nah, your wrong, as always. The correlation is the spending heavy on 1-2 positions lessens your ability at other locations, often having to keep mediocre or less talent at some positions.

We are clearly overspending on QB and now having 2 top tier receivers.

We won't see the results until the end of the season but I predict the offense takes a step back this year and we miss the playoffs. Then I can come back and bump this thread for you Rockport.

That does seem to be the case in many examples. But is it cap related, or by choice? If an owner only wants to spend X amount of dollars in guaranteed money, that's a choice. The cap can be massaged, the owner's limits can't. That's not lessening the ability, that's putting limits on what the GM can do. Which leads to your conclusion I put in bold.

 

[atlantacowboy]

Stats at times can be manipulated to show a for or against argument on almost any subject.
Not saying they are in this case. But to me it has nothing to do with making the playoffs or not.

Take the Bengals. They made, and should have won the SB with both their high paid WR's when they were on rookie contracts.
So now they are the highest paid tandem, but can't make the playoffs. Throw that stat out the window.

Both the Bengals and Cowboys had two of the worse defenses ever the past several years. That had more to do with it than high paid WR's.
Figure in injuries as well. Dallas was starting PS players a good part of the time.
Bengals missing Joe Burrow did not help then any either on top of a bad defense. He hs been injured several seasons, not allowing them to make or win a playoff game.

It all still comes down to the overall team. Not 1 or 2 players. Unless your QB is so elite he can overcome certain deficiencies.

Most teams are only as good as their weakest link. If stacking Wrs was the ticket, Matt Millen would be in the HOF. It's fine to have 2 top 10 WRs...........you just can't have the worst DL in the league at the same time.

 

[kramskoi]

Was that the game where Romo missed a wide open Austin down the right sideline that would have sealed the game at the end? Some losses I can't forget. If it isn't, then there was another game just like you described.

That was the game sir. Yep...that one right there. Austin was all alone with nothing but grass for days. The Giants don't make the playoffs with that loss. They would've dropped to 6 and 7 with Washington on deck...a team that swept them that year. 6 - 8 with just two games to play. Dallas would've won the division, with the win over the Bucs (making them 9 - 5) even dropping the last two versus the Eagles and Giants. Rob Ryan couldn't make chicken salad...

 

[kskboys]

Most teams are only as good as their weakest link. If stacking Wrs was the ticket, Matt Millen would be in the HOF. It's fine to have 2 top 10 WRs...........you just can't have the worst DL in the league at the same time.

Or at the expense of the DL.

 

[JW82]

can they just be special at one %$^$^$ thing one time. Make it work. figure it out.

 

[zekecowboy]

With all the discussions about tagging George Pickens and how or why we should keep him long term, or if we should keep both he and Cedee Lamb…There’s an interesting fact about the teams who are top ten spenders each year on WRs:

They don’t usually even make the playoffs.
In fact, in the last 5 seasons (2021-25), the top ten most expensive WR rooms only made the playoffs approximately 46% of the time.
For example, here are the top ten teams spending big on WRs in 2025:

1. Cincinnati-$50.9 million
2. Tampa Bay - $47.5 million
3. Miami - $41 million
4. Chicago - $35.3 million
5. Tennessee- $33.6 million
6. Indianapolis- $33.4 million
7. Detroit $30.4 million
8. San Francisco $29.1 million
9. Washington $28.7 million
10. Dallas $28.2 million

Of those ten teams only three made the playoffs in 2025.

I won’t take up a huge amount of space here listing each team from 2021-24. But I did my homework and only one team in the last 5 years that spent top ten money on WRs won a SB - the 2023 chiefs.

So as we discuss how to allocate future cap space, let’s remember that having the highest paid WR room does not translate to playoff success very often. Not saying WR talent isn’t important. Just saying be wise and discerning on spending big money on them.

Here’s the link I used: https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/position/_/year/2025/table/active-reserve/type/cap_total
(You can look up positional spending by year)

Teams with the highest paid quarterback rarely do well in the playoffs. When a quarterback resets the market and takes up the top salary spot, their team usually struggles to build a deep enough roster around them due to salary cap constraints. Because the "highest-paid" tag shifts frequently depending on who signed a contract extension most recently, looking at the data by Salary Cap Percentage provides the clearest picture.

 

[kskboys]

Teams with the highest paid quarterback rarely do well in the playoffs. When a quarterback resets the market and takes up the top salary spot, their team usually struggles to build a deep enough roster around them due to salary cap constraints. Because the "highest-paid" tag shifts frequently depending on who signed a contract extension most recently, looking at the data by Salary Cap Percentage provides the clearest picture.

Correct. Paying any player at any position at the top of the market is detrimental to super bowl success.

Basically, you're talking about paying one player around 1/5th of the entire cap. The salaries for top players has gotten utterly ridiculous.

Look at Mahomes, the best QB in football. What happened? Well, in the early part of his contract his cap hits were affordable. Then, the monstrous hits started kicking in. Which means you have to let players walk, which means you have a lesser team. Which means so super bowls. KC desperately missed Justin Reid and Tershawn Wharton, and Derrick NNadi, along w/ several key backup types.

And the humongous price leveled on WRs means that KC is left scrambling for starters, having to count on rooks and old dudes like Kelce and Hopkins. I would imagine Chris Jones's huge salary is starting to kick in also. As dominant as he is, he's now old.