With the regular season winding down in the NFL, I thought it might be fun to take a look at what positions are currently seeing the most amount of money on either IR or PUP this year. This is not reflective of the entire season just a snapshot in time as we get ready to play in week 14. The percentages here are based on annual contract values and cap dollars in the NFL.
| Position | APY on Reserve | Cap on Reserve | % APY on Reserve | % Cap on Reserve |
| Kicker | $23,062,500 | $14,602,677 | 18.2% | 13.9% |
| Interior D-Line | $173,939,857 | $109,322,987 | 18.1% | 16.0% |
| Center | $36,461,253 | $31,662,919 | 17.8% | 19.4% |
| Linebacker | $90,839,891 | $79,970,602 | 16.5% | 17.5% |
| Quarterback | $183,113,699 | $103,416,100 | 16.3% | 15.2% |
| Wide Receiver | $162,046,175 | $113,619,264 | 14.0% | 15.4% |
| Running Back | $46,838,281 | $30,463,762 | 13.9% | 11.5% |
| Offensive Tackle | $118,132,531 | $72,734,487 | 13.1% | 10.5% |
| Tight End | $51,066,367 | $46,648,750 | 12.5% | 13.8% |
| Edge | $122,612,627 | $108,631,331 | 12.1% | 13.9% |
| Guard | $63,589,215 | $64,294,333 | 11.6% | 14.8% |
| Cornerback | $74,606,397 | $49,634,934 | 9.7% | 8.6% |
| Punter | $5,800,000 | $4,908,333 | 9.0% | 7.9% |
| Safety | $45,083,580 | $40,384,382 | 8.6% | 8.9% |
| Long Snapper | $3,749,722 | $3,005,500 | 8.5% | 7.6% |
| Fullback | $795,000 | $470,000 | 3.6% | 2.3% |
This has been quite the year for kickers who surprisingly are at the top of the NFL for annual value on the sidelines. I would really need to go back and look and see if this was a normal occurrence, but I tend to think that this year there are more injuries at this position than usual to higher paid players.
The interior D-Line and center are the worst spots on defense and offense. The d-line has 18.1% of the total contract value around the NFL on IR and 16% of all cap charges on IR. Center is at 17.8% in APY and a whopping 19.4% of the cap sitting on the sidelines.
Linebacker and QB are both over 16% on the APY scale while linebacker is at 17.5% of the cap charges. QB and wide receiver are similar in cap percentage which has a lot to do with the way teams treat the QB cap charges, especially early in a contract, while the receiver cap number is higher than the APY which is indicative of older player injuries.
Defensive backs are the safest of the offensive and defensive positions this year. Corners only have 9.7% of the total APY on reserve while safeties are at just 8.6%. Guard is the top position at offense at 11.6% of the total APY though the cap number spikes up which is usually indicative of older players being the ones on IR.