INDIANAPOLIS – For the second consecutive yr, the NFL Gamers Affiliation on Wednesday launched its team-by-team report cards, which assess gamers’ working situations and environments all through their seasons and offseasons.
The Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings, Inexperienced Bay Packers, Philadelphia Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars rounded out the highest 5 when it comes to total grades.
In the meantime, for a second straight season, the Washington Commanders acquired the bottom grades within the league whereas the repeat Tremendous Bowl champion Kansas Metropolis Chiefs ranked thirty first total. The Los Angeles Chargers (thirtieth), New England Patriots (twenty ninth) and Pittsburgh Steelers (twenty eighth) spherical out the underside 5.
Crew grade classes included their coaching room, coaching employees, weight room, power coaches, crew journey, head coach and possession. Homeowners had been graded on gamers’ beliefs their possession teams function with a willingness to put money into crew services.
The survey knowledge was gathered from August to November of the 2023 season. A complete of 1,750 gamers (up from the roughly 1,300 contributors in 2022) took half within the survey. NFLPA leaders mentioned they had been inspired by the rise in participation this yr. Roughly 77 % of all NFL gamers took half within the survey. Gamers had been instructed to grade their groups and from there, the grades had been tallied and ranked.
The Participant Crew Report Playing cards are again. Final yr, the report playing cards led to gamers feeling extra knowledgeable about their office & this yr a number of new classes had been added together with Head Coach, Proprietor + Dietician/Nutritionist.
Have a look right here: https://t.co/RV0ZNDNb2h. pic.twitter.com/vfEv6A7d2s— NFLPA (@NFLPA) February 28, 2024
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers acquired an F on crew journey largely as a result of gamers with 4 seasons or much less and non-starters must have roommates on street journeys and are charged $1,750 per participant in the event that they need their very own room.
The Chiefs acquired low grades on account of frustrations by gamers after possession had promised to improve the out-of-date locker room.
Nonetheless, for a second consecutive yr, Clark Hunt and Kansas Metropolis didn’t make upgrades to the locker room apart from changing the stools gamers got to take a seat on in entrance of their lockers with chairs with backs on them. Chiefs gamers had been informed there was no time to adequately improve the crew services as a result of their season prolonged into February as a consequence of their Tremendous Bowl run in 2022.
Kansas Metropolis tied for first with the Detroit Lions and Vikings when it comes to head-coaching grades. Andy Reid, Dan Campbell and Kevin O’Connell every acquired A-plus grades. The coach to obtain the bottom grade was Josh McDaniels, whom the Las Vegas Raiders fired throughout the season.
“I’d say issues have improved and we’re glad that they’re,” NFL Gamers Affiliation president J.C. Tretter, a retired offensive lineman, mentioned. “Our entire purpose of this … (entails) highlighting the great groups, highlighting the crew that would enhance and a drive for change to make issues get higher for gamers, each instantly and long run.”
NFLPA leaders hope the report playing cards function a instrument to make sure accountability and immediate crew house owners and management groups to offer their gamers with improved services, ample diet, medical care, lodging for households and extra.
Lloyd Howell, the NFLPA’s new government director, spent a lot of final season touring to satisfy with house owners of all 32 groups and talk about working situations. A few of these conversations centered on the findings of final yr’s outcomes. Howell mentioned many house owners are receptive to bettering situations.
“This isn’t a shaming train,” Howell mentioned. “That is actually a possibility to acknowledge these groups and environments which can be doing properly — which can be doing all the appropriate issues. That is gamers speaking about their working situations and what they like and what they’d prefer to see improved.”
The findings of the survey, which was carried out by a third-party survey service, are fascinating, however curiously sufficient, the union discovered no correlation between successful and dropping and the standard of the grades groups acquired.
This yr, the union added a number of classes, which included possession, head coach, nutritionists and dietitians.
Dolphins proprietor Stephen Ross acquired the very best possession grade, whereas Hunt acquired the bottom.
A yr after rating among the many worst groups within the league, the Jaguars opened a brand new crew headquarters. The rat infestation that prompted complaints and low grades in 2023 is not a difficulty. The Cincinnati Bengals ranked among the many worst when it comes to cafeteria grades in 2023 as a result of meals weren’t supplied all through the day. A yr later, the crew started providing three meals a day on Wednesdays however nonetheless has a methods to go earlier than gamers really feel adequately cared for.
The Commanders ranked among the many worst total below Daniel Snyder final season and now have a brand new proprietor in Josh Harris. The possession grade elevated, however the services grades improved solely barely, which is comprehensible given the actual fact Harris, who purchased the crew in late July, has had restricted time to execute upgrades.
In the meantime, the Dallas Cowboys dropped from fifth to twelfth, with frustrations over restricted assets and understaffed coaching employees inflicting the drop in participant satisfaction.
One of many biggest areas of concern for gamers is ample assets and staffing of the coaching rooms. Many groups are short-staffed on this division, and the NFLPA has been engaged in conversations with the NFL in regards to the want for a threshold for the variety of trainers employed by a crew to make sure an ample trainer-to-player ratio that may guarantee gamers obtain ample take care of accidents.
The NFL launched an announcement saying the league and the groups “encourage and solicit participant suggestions to assist enhance all sides of their NFL expertise. We stay up for getting the chance to evaluation the union’s questionnaire, and the info supporting it.”
The league added that it invited the union to hitch it “in a rigorous and third-party scientific-based survey as now we have beforehand achieved.”
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(Photograph: Michael Reaves / Getty Pictures)
