Defense Spending

[bobblehead]

You know how people say, well, we can't devote resources to the defense, because we're allocating our money to Rodgers' contract and weapons for him?
.

I don't ever recall anyone saying that...ever...at all.

[Patler]

I don't ever recall anyone saying that...ever...at all.

Ya, especially when you look at the lists of the highest paid players the last few years and it has been fairly evenly divided between offense and defense. Matthews has been #2 since his last contract, and for several years the next highest paid were Peppers and Shields Three of the top four were on D. Beyond that, in various orders the top 10 have included Lang, Sitton, Nelson and Cobb from the O and Daniels and Burnett from the D. This year you have Nelson, Cobb, Daniels and Burnett along with Bulaga, Bakhtiari, Perry and Taylor at the top of the list.

Rodgers and Matthews have been the two outliers, with others on O&D relatively significantly below them. If anything, the problem has been that Matthews hasn't done for the D what Rodgers does for the O, and Shields wasn't on the field enough to justify his portion of the salary cap the last few years. For the most part, the highest paid on offense have played and earned their money. For various reasons, the D have not even though they have gotten their share of the pot.