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Minnesota Vikings Rank 64th In Pro Sports Payroll Efficiency

By Adam Carlson

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The Minnesota Vikings haven’t always been good with their finances.  Like every team, they make mistakes.  For example. the signings of former Green Bay Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings and free agent John Carlson were both considered major missteps for the team’s front office.  But there have been some great deals and values pass through the tunnel for the Vikings.

Trying to determine how smart a team is when investing their money in a franchise can be difficult.  However, the Vikings were recently ranked #64 among teams in the NFL, MLB, and NBA in a study conducted by the website NerdWallet to determine how efficient each team is when it comes to their payroll.  In case you’re curious how they determined the efficiency of each squad, here is the formula that they used:

"“In our analysis, we counted regular season victories over the past 15 years and factored in whether the team had won any championships to create an “adjusted wins” total for each franchise.We then divided each team’s share of the league’s total adjusted wins since 2000 by the team’s share of the league’s total payroll over that same time. This gave us a payroll efficiency index with an average score of 1. The more financially efficient a team is, the higher the index number.”"

Here is the entire list from the NerdWallet website:

Let’s take a look at the NFL teams that graded out to be more efficient financially than the Minnesota Vikings in this study:

May 27, 2015; Eden Prairie, MN, USA; Minnesota Vikings general manager Rick Spielman smiles as he leaves OTA practice at Winter Park. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

1. New England Patriots

6. Indianapolis Colts

7. Pittsburgh Steelers

9. Baltimore Ravens

10. Green Bay Packers

14. New York Giants

18. Seattle Seahawks

24. Philadelphia Eagles

25. Denver Broncos

27. New Orleans Saints

40. San Diego Chargers

45. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

46. San Francisco 49ers

47. Tennessee Titans

49. Chicago Bears

53. New York Jets

55. Dallas Cowboys

61. Atlanta Falcons

62. Carolina Panthers

This means that the Minnesota Vikings ranked 20th in the NFL in this metric, which would place them in the bottom half of the league.  This is likely due to the lack of championships that the team acquired over the last 15 years and also explains why many of the teams in the top of the rankings have either been consistent division winners or have won the Super Bowl in that time span.

There are a couple other notable positions on the list.  The New York Knicks are considered the least financially efficient, but only one spot above them is the NFC North’s Detroit Lions.  In addition, the Minnesota Twins ranked #20 and the Timberwolves earned the #78 position.

Next: Minnesota Vikings 2015 Game By Game Previews

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