Falcons have the 16th-best payroll efficiency in football, study finds

A new study suggests the Falcons are about league average in payroll efficiency, which is a fancy way of saying they spend an average amount of money for their wins.

That's the conclusion of NerdWallet, which ran a fairly simple calculation to figure out how much money teams spent to get their wins over the last 15 years. There are very few surprises in here, really,

The New England Patriots came out on top, owing to their skinflint ways and consistent success since 2000, which is the cutoff point for this study. Even if the Patriots had spent a lot more money, they'd likely be in the top five or ten, given their success. The Detroit Lions, with their decent-sized payroll and dismal returns, are dead last.

The Falcons are around 18th, one ahead of the Carolina Panthers and several behind the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints. Considering the Buccaneers have been the most inept team in the division for half that time, their early 2000's results and relatively low-cost roster appears to have done them some good. The Saints, of course, are known for both their cap wizardry and their relative success over that span.

All this really means is that the Falcons could win more and spend less doing so, and with a lot of youth on the roster and a new head coach in place, we'll hope they do exactly that going forward.