With Super Bowl LIX less than a week away, it’s worth wondering how the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles got to this juncture, with the AFC champs looking to become the first team in NFL history to “three-peat” as league champions in New Orleans on Sunday.
In total, Kansas City’s 2024-25, 53-man roster has a salary cap allocation of just over $262.4 million, per Spotrac.com, ranking 13th out of 32 teams by that metric, with $227.017 in dead cap space, which ranks as the 31st most in the 32-team league.
As for the on-field action itself, DraftKings Sportsbook currently has K.C. down as a 1.5-point favorite in Super Bowl LIX, with a -125 moneyline on the two-time defending Super Bowl champs, compared with +105 odds on the NFC champs from the City of Brotherly Love.
As we get closer to the Super Bowl, BetMissouri.com paused Missouri sports betting updates and was interested in seeing the most prevalent top-paid positions among Super Bowl winning teams. We used Spotrac.com to find the top five paid positions, based on Cap Hit, for each team that won the Super Bowl since 2015. We compared the six positions the past Super Bowl champion teams have spent most of their money on to the current Kansas City Chiefs team to see how the Chiefs stack up against historical winners. We did top six teams since there was a 3-way tie for 4th place. The ranking is based on the number of championship teams the positions are on.
What Positions Get Paid the Most On Super Bowl Champion Teams?
Rank | Position | # of Teams | Pct of Avg. Cap Hit |
1 | Quarterback | 8 | 9.77% |
T-2 | Cornerback | 5 | 6.67% |
T-2 | Tight End | 5 | 5.20% |
T-4 | Wide Receiver | 4 | 7.65% |
T-4 | Free Safety | 4 | 6.53% |
T-4 | Outside Linebacker | 4 | 5.40% |
Of the NFL champions since 2015, the position that got paid the most overall was quarterback, with eight of those teams paying their respective signal callers the most salary cap money of any position group, compared with five teams apiece that doled out the most money to cornerbacks and tight ends.
Three other groups, those being wide receivers, free safeties and outside linebackers, were the top position groups, salary cap pay-wise, on Super Bowl-winning teams since 2015, as K.C. looks to add another QB-heavy roster to the list in 2025, as Patrick Mahomes is the biggest cap hit on the Chiefs’ roster (by far), at $66,258,269 (or 24.09% of the Chiefs’ total), per Spotrac.com.
Chiefs’ Top Five Highest-Paid Positions
Rank | Position | Pct of Cap Hit |
1 | Quarterback | 24.09% |
2 | Defensive Tackle | 12.67% |
3 | Right Tackle | 9.96% |
4 | Guard | 9.81% |
5 | Tight End | 7.20% |
As stated above, Mahomes’ outsized salary cap hit means that the quarterback position is the resounding winner when it comes to the heaviest hits per position group, with a total of 24.09% of K.C.’s salary cap total going to their starting gunslinger.
Trailing Mahomes are the Chiefs’ defensive tackle unit (led by Chris Jones and his $34.850 million salary cap hit), right tackles (led by Jawaan Taylor’s $27,391,666 cap hit), offensive guards (led by Joe Thuney’s hit of $26,971,713) and tight ends (led by Travis Kelce’s hit of $19,801,667).
In total, defensive ends on the Chiefs’ roster contributed 12.67% of K.C.’s salary cap hit, compared with 9.96% for right tackles, 9.81% for offensive guards and 7.2% for tight ends, illustrating once and for all how NFL teams are dependent upon the quarterback position if they’re going to hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy at the end of the sport’s biggest game.
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USA Today photo by Michael Chow
Author
Christopher Boan is a lead writer for BetMissouri.com, specializing in covering state issues. He has covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
