INDIANAPOLIS — For the second consecutive year, the NFL Players Association on Wednesday released a team-by-team report card that assesses the working conditions and environment for players throughout the season and offseason.
The Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings, Green Bay Packers, Philadelphia Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars rounded out the top five overall.
Meanwhile, the Washington Commanders finished with the lowest points in the league for the second straight season, while the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs finished 31st overall. The Los Angeles Chargers (30th), New England Patriots (29th) and Pittsburgh Steelers (28th) rounded out the bottom five.
Team level categories include training room, training staff, weight room, strength coach, team travel, head coach and ownership. Owners are graded based on players’ belief in their ownership group’s willingness to invest in team facilities.
Survey data were collected from August to November 2023. A total of 1,750 players (approximately 1,300 participants in 2022) participated in the survey. NFLPA leaders said they are encouraged by the increase in participation this year. Approximately 77% of NFL players participated in the survey. Players are asked to rate their teams, and the results are then tallied and ranked.
Player team report cards are back. Last year, the report card gave players more visibility into their workplace, and this year several new categories have been added, including Head Coach, Owner + Nutritionist/Nutritionist.
Check it out here: https://t.co/RV0ZNDNb2h. pic.twitter.com/vfEv6A7d2s— NFLPA (@NFLPA) February 28, 2024
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers get an “F” for team travel, primarily because players with four seasons or less and non-starters must have roommates when traveling on the road if they want their own rooms, each The player fee is $1,750.
The Chiefs have suffered low points amid player dissatisfaction after the owner pledged to upgrade an outdated locker room.
However, for the second year in a row, Clark Hunt and Kansas City made no locker room upgrades, other than replacing the stools and chairs with backs in front of the players’ locker rooms. Chiefs players were told there would be no time to fully upgrade the team’s facilities because their season was extended into February due to the 2022 Super Bowl.
Kansas City is tied for first in head coaching grades with the Detroit Lions and Vikings. Andy Reid, Dan Campbell and Kevin O’Connell all received A+ grades. The lowest-rated coach is Josh McDaniels, who was fired by the Las Vegas Raiders this season.
“I would say things have improved, and we’re glad to see that,” said retired offensive lineman J.C. Tretter, president of the NFL Players Association. “Our overall goals … (include) highlighting good teams, highlighting teams that can improve and driving change to make things better for players, both in the short and long term.”
NFLPA leaders hope the report card will serve as a tool to ensure accountability and prompt team owners and leadership teams to provide players with improved facilities, adequate nutrition, medical care, family accommodations and more.
The NFLPA’s new executive director, Lloyd Howell, spent much of last season traveling to meet with the owners of all 32 teams and discuss working conditions. Some of those conversations focused on last year’s results. Howell said many property owners are willing to improve conditions.
“This is not an act of humiliation,” Howell said. “It’s really an opportunity to recognize teams and environments that are performing well – they’re doing all the right things. It’s the players talking about their working conditions, what they like and what improvements they would like to see.”
The results of the survey, conducted by a third-party survey service, are fascinating, but interestingly the union found no correlation between wins and losses and the quality of results achieved by teams.
This year, the union added several categories, including ownership, head coaches, nutritionists and nutritionists.
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross received the highest ownership grade, while Hunter received the lowest.
A year after being ranked among the league’s worst teams, the Jaguars have opened a new team headquarters. In 2023, rat infestation, which causes complaints and bad scores, is no longer an issue. The Cincinnati Bengals have the worst dining hall ratings in 2023 because they don’t serve meals throughout the day. A year later, the team began offering three meals a day on Wednesdays, but there was still a long way to go before players felt fully cared for.
The Commanders had their worst overall performance last season under Daniel Snyder and now have a new owner in Josh Harris. The ownership level increased, but the facility level increased only slightly, which is understandable since Harris purchased the team in late July and had limited time to implement upgrades.
Meanwhile, the Dallas Cowboys dropped from fifth to 12th place due to limited resources and a lack of training staff, leading to a drop in player satisfaction.
One of the biggest areas of concern for players is the adequacy of resources and personnel in the training room. Many teams are short-staffed in this department, and the NFLPA has been in conversations with the NFL about the need to set a threshold on the number of coaches teams hire to ensure there is an adequate ratio between coaches and players to ensure players receive adequate of injury care.
The NFL issued a statement saying the league and teams “encourage and solicit player feedback to help improve all aspects of their NFL experience. We look forward to the opportunity to review the union’s questionnaire and its supporting data.”
The coalition added that it invited the union to join “a rigorous third-party scientific investigation as we have done before”.
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(Photo: Michael Reeves/Getty Images)
