Comparing the Buccaneers' positional spending to the NFL median

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers haven't been cheap in recent years, spending big in free agency in nearly every season since Greg Schiano came to town. That's led to a lot of turnover, and some odd contract numbers -- so I thought it would be interesting to compare the Bucs' positional spending to the NFL average. Where are the Bucs spending their money?

Here are the numbers from the irreplaceable Over The Cap.

I'm not sure what we can learn from this, given that these ratios are going to change every year. For instance, we'll probably see the number for linebackers jump up to the league average once Lavonte David receives his new contract, while the number for the offensive line and defensive line will fall significantly next year, when Michael Johnson's and Anthony Collins' numbers come off the books.

Mostly, these numbers are heavily influenced by individual players. The Bucs don't spend much at quarterback because they have players on their rookie contracts. The receiver spending is almost all down to Vincent Jackson, but the Bucs invested significant resources into the position with Mike Evans -- he's just cheap in terms of a contract. And the Bucs were spending a ton of money on safety last year, before they got rid of them because they just didn't fit the scheme.

Which is a fair indication that we'll see different numbers next year, depending on contract extension, free agent additions and roster cuts. One-year snapshots just don't tell you much about a team's long-term strategy, and longer-term snapshots won't tell us much about this regime's intentions either given that this is only their second year.