The biggest problem I have with the salaries in Madden's franchise mode are the overly low salaries for backup players, especially at certain positions. Users can exploit this to have great depth at low salaries and very few salary cap problems. I created a formula that projects salaries better than the way Madden does it imo.

I looked at the average salaries on spotrac.com to do this. I also looked at the maximum salaries at each position as well to try to develop a formula that projects a fair salary for these players at all ranges. I consider a fringe starter or good backup to be someone ranked at 24th out of 32 at their position (48 if a dual starter position like CB, WR, G, etc). These are guys that are typically rated around 75.

AVERAGE SALARY FOR FRINGE STARTER/BACKUP
QB $4,000,000
RB $3,000,000
FB $550,000
WR $3,000,000
TE $2,400,000
LT $3,000,000
RT $1,350,000
C/G $1,350,000
DE $3,000,000
DT $1,600,000
OLB $2,000,000
ILB $1,750,000
CB $2,500,000
S $1,600,000

The maximum salaries by position varied quite a bit too with QB clearly at the top. Some positions like LT saw a steep drop off below the average salary if they were below average. QBs saw a bigger increase on a percentage basis than the other positions as their abilities went up. RB and TE were the cheapest in terms of the top players not seeing their salaries increase at the same rate as QB or WR. The ceilings are lower for certain positions.

INTERESTING CONTRACT FACTS
Did you know AP was the only RB over $10M? Prior to the Jamaal Charles extension there were eight RBs that made between $7M and $9M (Lynch ranked #7). 29 NFL RBs make at least $2M. Did you know Marcedes Lewis averages $6.8M and was tied for 7th at TE and that 20 Tight Ends average at least $3M a year? Did you know that 19 ILBs made at least $5M a year with Willis #1 at $10M? 24 NFL CBs make at least $5M and 44 make at least $3M. That's right -CBs such as Walter Thurmond, Dmitri Patterson, Tracy Patterson and Brandon Flowers are all making at least $3M. 19 DEs make at least $6M, 40 DEs make at least $4M, 52 DEs make at least $3M and 66 make at least $2M. So when you go to sign that 80 rated DE to shore up your defensive line and Madden only requires you to pay him $1.5M a year this is a problem. At $1.5M these are the 75th ranked DEs in the NFL. Nobodies like Alex Carrington or Jeremy Mincey. These are the guys you get for $1.5M.

So I created a spreadsheet to try and predict your salary based on rating, position and age. The age part is rough since RBs will age faster and QBs age more gracefully but give it a shot to see if you like it. Scroll down to see ratings and salaries for each position. (I did not put a floor in for minimum salary).

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...#gid=629198402