The Baltimore Ravens are one of the most efficient teams in sports

The Ravens have had general manager Ozzie Newsome as the main driving force behind getting great talent at a great price. Nothing says that better than Newsome's NFL Draft track record, where all-time greats like Ray Lewis and Jonathan Ogden have been selected along with the myriad of other talent grabbed in the last 20 years that panned out for the Ravens.

However, when you quantify how cost-efficient the Baltimore Ravens have been over the last 15 years, it is easy to see why the Ravens have been consistently great year after year. Nerd Wallet did this homework for us and took a look at how efficient every team in sports (NBA, NFL, MLB) has been. In all of sports, the Ravens rank an astonishing 9th overall! With a rating of 1.3769, the Ravens have been 37.69% more efficient than the average team.

When comparing it just along the 32 NFL teams, the Ravens come in at 4th overall. Behind the New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, and Pittsburgh Steelers.

Part of the reason for this is that the Ravens typically are one of the best drafting teams in the league. They are able to select players in every round that have gone on to be successful players in some fashion. Add to that the idea that the Ravens typically don't overpay for players by using their 80/20 rule and you can see how the Ravens have become so efficient.

Due to the way that the ratings are created, the addition of a Super Bowl win adds a full 16 games to the team that won. That is why the Patriots rank so high as they have 3 Super Bowl wins in the last 15 years, while the Steelers have 2 in the last 15 years, which gives them the slight edge over the Ravens.