It's difficult to prove if an NFL player is overpaid, underpaid or paid correctly. But ProFootballFocus.com recently took on the daunting task of identifying each NFL team's most undervalued and overvalued players based on their 2012 performance.
Some of the Dallas Cowboys on the list may surprise you.
Leading the way in the undervalued category is defensive lineman Jason Hatcher. The site determined that Hatcher, who counted $2.1 million against the cap, played at a value of $8.9 million. No. 1 on the overvalued list: defensive lineman Jay Ratliff, who counted $5.3 million against the cap but played at a $1.2 million value.
The summary on Hatcher points out that the 30-year-old "more than doubled his amount of hurries from 14 to 29, and did the same with his run stops from 11 to 24."
Nathan Jahnke, who wrote the article, added this about Hatcher: "While he isn't quiet in the same conversation with J.J. Watt and Muhammad Wilkerson, he is definitely in the next tier."
Other undervalued Cowboys: Sean Lee, DeMarco Murray, Anthony Spencer, Bruce Carter, Nate Livings, Tony Romo, Josh Brent, Jason Witten and Ryan Cook.
Underperforming big contracts put Ratliff, Doug Free and Marcus Spears in the top three spots of the overvalued top 10.
"It's no surprise Jerry Jones wanted Ratliff to come back from injury late in the season with how much he is getting paid," Jahnke wrote. "Ratliff gets a little bit of a pass since he played in only six games, but not a full one. While he did just fine pass rushing with six hits and eight hurries, he was having more problems getting blocked in the run game than in previous years.
"He had 10 stops, but in four of his six games he was held to one or zero. He has several years left on his contract, so he will need a full recovery to not take the top spot again next year."
DeMarcus Ware, Orlando Scandrick, Morris Claiborne, Dan Connor, Kyle Orton, Mike Jenkins and Brandon Carr rounded out the overvalued top 10.
As a whole, the 8-8 Cowboys actually outperformed their salary as a team by $18.4 million according to the site. Jahnke wrote that "Outside of cornerback, where they've invested a lot of money, the Cowboys are actually doing a decent job of getting the most out of their players."
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