Salary cap spending last few years...

[www.cbssports.com]

Is your favorite NFL team being smart with its money?

Thanks to the NFL Players Association, we can now kind of answer that question. For the past four years, the NFLPA has been tracking how much each team has been using in cash.

Basically, when the new CBA was implemented in 2011, one of the new agreements called for each NFL team to spend at least 89 percent of its salary cap in cash during specific four-year periods.

With the first four-year period (2013 to 2016) set to end in March 2017, the NFLPA released new numbers on Monday that show how each team has done in regard to meeting the 89 percent minimum threshold.

For the four-year period, each team had a total of $554,550,000 in salary cap space. Of that total, the CBA required that each had to spend roughly $493.5 million in cash on player salaries.
With just three months to go, the Raiders are the only team in the NFL that hasn't met the minimum spending threshold. At $491.4 million, the Raiders have roughly 90 days to spend $2.1 million and meet the minimum requirement. The Raiders could do that simply by extending someone's contract.

As CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora noted in November, if the Raiders don't meet the spending threshold, they'd have to cut a check to the NFLPA for the amount that they fall short.

The NFLPA's numbers show that the 32 teams combined to spend a total of $17.44 billion in cash on player salary between 2013 and 2016. If you want to know if you're team has been spending smartly, just check out the rankings below.

For instance, the Eagles spent more than $600 million between 2013 and 2016, but they only have one playoff berth to show for that. That's pretty rough, especially when you consider that they're the only team that's spent over $600 million. The three teams right below the Eagles have all been to the playoffs in each of the past three years.

On the other hand, the Panthers only spent $495.1 million during that span and have three playoff appearances and a Super Bowl berth to show for it. Besides the Raiders, the Panthers are the only team that spent under $500 million.

The Patriots have also been thrifty, ranking 30th in money spent.

Here's how much each team spent in cash on player salaries between 2013 and 2016.

Eagles: $613.9 million
Broncos: $587.7 million
Seahawks: $584.3 million
Packers: $583.1 million
Dolphins: $578 million
Chiefs: $575.5 million
Bills: $573.6 million
Bears: $586.3 million
Bengals: $567.3 million
Ravens: $562.4 million
Chargers: $562.2 million
Colts: $556.3 million
Falcons: $550.6 million
Giants: $543.8 million
Cardinals: $543.3 million
Rams: $542 million
Saints: $539.8 million
Buccaneers: $539.7 million
Vikings: $539.2 million
Jets: $533.2 million
Redskins: $532.5 million
Pittsburgh Steelers : $530.7 million
Detroit Lions : $530.2 million
Tennessee Titans : $524.5 million
Dallas Cowboys : $523 million
Houston Texans : $517.2 million
Jacksonville Jaguars : $516.9 million
Cleveland Browns : $516.2 million
49ers: $514.5 million
Patriots: $500.1 million
Panthers: $495.1 million
MINIMUM THRESHOLD: $493.5 million
Raiders: $491.4 million