NFLPA Team Report Card: Dolphins, Vikings Pass, Super Bowl Chiefs Fail
Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 08:20PM By Barry Janoff
February 28, 2024: The Kansas City Chiefs may be atop the NFL with back-to-back Super Bowl victories, but the team is at the bottom when it comes to such categories as workplace conditions, training, interaction with players’ families and overall treatment of the players themselves.
The NFL Players Assn. today released its second annual "Team Report Cards" for all NFL 32 teams, with the intended goal to “improve the overall working conditions for our players, which includes the daily experience of players at the team facilities away from the lights and cameras.”
The NFLPA said 1,706 players participated in this year’s survey — nearly 76% of all players and up from 60% last year (slightly more than 1,300 responses).
Topping the list are the Miami Dolphins and Minnesota Vikings, switching their No. 1 and No. 2 positions from the inaugural Team Report Cards last year.
The top-rated NFL teams also include the No. 3 Green Bay Packers, No. 4 Philadelphia Eagles, No. 5 Jacksonville Jaguars — which jumped from 28th in the previous survey — and No. 6 San Francisco 49ers.
The Houston Texans were 7th overall, Las Vegas Raiders 9th, Chicago Bears 10th, Dallas Cowboys 12th and Detroit Lions 13th.
Last year, the 2023 NFLPA Jaguars report card included the severe observation: “Players reported that for 3-4 weeks this season, there was a rat infestation in the locker room and laundry hampers.”
The Jaguars moved to new facilities for the start of 2023 training camp, without the rats.
Andy Reid ranked No. 1 among all head coaches, but for all their prowess on the field, the Chiefs ranked 31st in the survey.
Also at the bottom: the Pittsburgh Steelers ranked 28th, New England Patriots 29th, Los Angeles Chargers 30th and the Washington Commanders 32nd.
“The league and its clubs always encourage and solicit player feedback to help improve all facets of their NFL experience,” the NFL replied in a statement after the results were shared. “We look forward to getting the opportunity to review the union’s questionnaire, and the data supporting it, after its release to the media.
“When we first learned of this survey yesterday, we took the opportunity again to invite the union to join the NFL in a rigorous and third-party scientific-based survey as we have previously done and is mandated by the Collective Bargaining Agreement.”
NFLPA president JC Tretter wrote in a letter posted to the union’s Web site, “For many years, our players brought up the idea of creating a ‘Free Agency Guide’ that would illuminate what the daily experience is for players and their families at each team.
“Last year, we created the first version of that guide, and it was a success on several levels: Players were more informed about how their workplace compared to others across the NFL; some clubs made immediate improvements based on the information we published; it gave our union a platform to advocate for raising workplace standards across the NFL.”
According to Tretter, there are several upgrades and additions this year. “We incorporated learning from last year and look to continue to build on a platform that captures the state of NFL club workplaces from authentic player feedback across the NFL.
“Our goals were to highlight positive clubs, identify areas that could use improvement, and highlight best practices and standards.”
"We look to continue to build on a platform that captures the state of NFL club workplaces from authentic player feedback across the NFL."
Players were asked to grade teams in 11 areas: Treatment of Families, Food/Cafeteria, Nutritionist/Dietician, Locker Room, Training Room, Training Staff, Weight Room, Strength Coaches, Team Travel, Head Coach and Owners.
The Dolphins scored no lower than “A-“ in any category; the Vikings had two “Bs.”
Alongside Reid, two other head coaches received “A+” grades: Lions Dan Campbell and Minnesota’s Kevin O’Connell.
By comparison, despite Reid’s “A+”, the Chiefs had four “Fs” — Owner, Nutritionist, Locker Room and Training Staff — three “Ds” and three “Cs.”
According to Tretter, “It is really important to highlight the teams that are doing things well and where players are happy. It makes a big difference when players go to work feeling supported by their club, and we want our members to know which clubs make players feel that way based on the responses from some who were at that club during this past year.
“For players who have been on one team and are looking to move elsewhere for whatever reason, there is currently no centralized resource to compare some players’ feelings and opinions about their working experiences from one team to another.
“Players who have only played on one team for their entire career may accept their team’s standards as the norm and often think conditions are the same everywhere else. Making more information and opinions available can not only inform players about best practices, but also hopefully help raise the standards across all clubs
“Our goal as a union is always to bring value to our members, and getting feedback from them is a classic union tool to get a better understanding of what membership feels about certain issues.”
Back to Home Page