It was shaping up to be a slow Wednesday at the NFL Scouting Combine until reporters caught wind the NFLPA was scheduled to release its latest club report cards.
The second annual report did not disappoint, giving NFL scribes plenty to write about. We’ll take a glance at what stood out from the NFLPA’s findings—including plenty of head-scratching nuggets out of the AFC West teams.
A few general managers also spoke Wednesday, including a very informative news conference from New York Jets GM Joe Douglas. Here’s what we learned Wednesday in Indianapolis.
AFC West nuggets from NFLPA report cards
There was plenty to dig through, as Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer mentioned in his quick hits off the NFLPA’s latest club report cards released Wednesday morning.
In particular, the teams in the AFC West presented some interesting findings, to say the least.
The Kansas City Chiefs have won back-to-back Super Bowls, but unfortunately for them, “games won” wasn’t a factor in the report cards, and the organization ranked 31st in this year’s survey. Kansas City failed in four of the 11 categories, including an F- in the owner category, which was a new addition to this year’s report cards.
JC Tretter, the NFLPA president, said the category is primarily based on an owner’s “willingness to invest” in the team, something Chiefs owner Clark Hunt has failed to do with facilities in the locker room, according to the report’s findings.
Tretter said the Chiefs players’ biggest issue with Hunt was with regard to false promises that were made in the past year to improve the locker room.
“The year before they promised them a brand-new locker room,” Tretter told a group of reporters at the Indianapolis Convention Center. “The team went on to win the Super Bowl. They then came back to the same old locker room, but with new chairs. It was the only renovation. And the answer they got back was, You guys went too far in the playoffs. We didn’t have time to fix it.”
“They just won another Super Bowl. I think there’s some frustration there, out of that locker room: We keep winning Super Bowls and nothing is coming back to us. There’s no priority in making our lives better, but we keep making the organization more money and more fame.”
Here’s what else the NFLPA’s website had to say about the Chiefs’ subpar facilities: “The No. 1 complaint when it comes to the facilities is the locker room. Though the players received actual chairs with backs to sit in at their lockers in response to last year’s feedback, it did not change the fact that the locker room is overdue for a renovation. What adds to the frustration is that management told the players that renovations would come after the 2022 season. The players went on to win the Super Bowl and when they arrived back at their facility for the ’23–24 season, they realized the team never followed through with the promised renovation [other than adding chairs].”
The Chiefs did, however, get an A+ in the head coach category. The NFLPA said Reid was the highest-rated head coach in the league; the Detroit Lions’ Dan Campbell and Minnesota Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell were the only other coaches to receive an A+ grade in the new category.
Former Las Vegas Raiders coach Josh McDaniels received a D grade for the head coach category, the worst score among the report cards. (The survey was taken while he was the head coach.) The poor grade hurt the Raiders’ overall ranking and dropped the team to ninth among the 32 teams.
“The Las Vegas Raiders’ facilities rate at or near the top of the NFL in nearly every category and remain a great facility for players to work at,” according to the NFLPA’s overview of the Raiders. “The club’s shortcomings were tied directly to players’ opinions about their former head coach, Josh McDaniels.”
“The responding players’ strong negative assessment of the former head coach significantly brought down the club’s overall ranking. The hope is that newly hired head coach Antonio Pierce will create a better working environment to match the top-of-the line facilities in Las Vegas.”
The Los Angeles Chargers were ranked 30th overall, but their score could improve next year with a new training facility scheduled to open later this year in El Segundo, Calif. But that won’t help the category of team travel, where the Chargers earned a D- grade.
“The Chargers are one team that continues the same issue as last year where they don’t send the truck ahead of time,” Tretter said to reporters. “So you ship all your equipment. Most teams send their truck with all the equipment ahead of time. They [the Chargers] load it on the team plane, which means the players sit on the tarmac for hours both ways waiting for them to load and unload the truck.”
Credit
COMMENTS