The Indianapolis Colts' Payroll Pales In Comparison To The Other Teams Still Competing For The Super Bowl

Among the four teams that will compete in this weekend's conference championship games, the New England Patriots have the largest payroll, barely edging out the Green Bay Packers. At the other end, the Indianapolis Colts are well-behind the other three teams.

If we take a closer look we can see that the four teams spend money on their roster in much different ways according to data obtained from Spotrac.com. For example, the Packers have the most expensive starting offense ($44.0 million) and defense ($44.9 million) but have only spent more than the Seahawks on back-ups and special teams players .

The Seahawks may be the unluckiest of the four teams with the most money dedicated to players on the injured reserve ($17.0 million) and a close second to the Patriots ($18.6 million) in dead money ($18.1 million), which is the amount of cap space allocated to players no longer on each team.

Here is the full breakdown.

Total in the chart above does not include all of the money spent on players. Small items such as practice squad players and non-football injured players are not included.