The NFL’s attempt to conceal the NFLPA’s annual report cards from the public has already failed miserably.
Over the last three years, the NFLPA surveyed well over 1,000 players regarding different aspects of their teams, from travel to the locker room to their coaches. Earlier this month, the NFL announced they had won their grievance which meant that the NFLPA would be barred from publicly releasing their grades. On Thursday, the results of the survey were leaked and released by ESPN.
Following the leaks, the NFL sent a letter to all 32 teams which continued to criticize the report cards and asked for clubs not to comment on them publicly. Here is the memo, which was obtained by CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones.
“We understand that the NFL Players Association posted its ‘Team Report Cards’ on its players-only website today and we are aware that the media is reporting some of the purported results. As we have previously advised, the admissions made by the union and its counsel during the the grievance hearing—including that: (i): the Report Cards are ‘union speech’; (ii) the union cherry-picks which topics and responses to include and exclude; (iii) players have no role in drafting the Report Cards commentary; (iv) the union chooses which anonymous player quotations to include and which ones to leave out; and (v) the union determines how much weight to allocate to each topic before assigning the ‘grades’—confirmed that the Report Cards are neither reliable nor scientifically valid. In fact, these admissions explain the union’s ongoing and steadfast refusal to share any data or information about the process that it inaccurately tries to characterize as ‘scientifically valid.’
Given these significant admitted limitations, we continued to recommend that Clubs prioritize feedback and information provided directly by their own players rather than relying on the NFLPA’s agenda-driven exercise. We further recommend that Clubs refrain from commenting or engaging publicly on the alleged survey and Report Card results. Doing so only provides credibility to the union’s media campaign.”
The NFL has sent this memo to clubs following the leaked NFLPA report cards, saying teams should refrain from “commenting or engaging publicly on the alleged survey and Report Card results.” pic.twitter.com/ovczEWF8jM
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) February 27, 2026
What did we learn from the 2026 NFLPA record cards?
There were a number of takeaways from this year’s grades. Some teams remained close to the same though in the rankings, including the Browns and Cardinals, who rank 30th and 31st respectively—both ranked 30th or worse a year ago too. The Cardinals are in the process of building a new facility which could help their grades rise, but it doesn’t help their cause that Michael Bidwell was the lone owner to receive an “F” grade.
The Steelers received the lowest grade after dropping to No. 32 in the rankings as the team scored grades of “D” or lower in treatment of families, home game field, their locker room, travel and ownership.
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On the opposite end, the Dolphins and Vikings remain ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the league. The Commanders, Seahawks and Jaguars were among the top risers in the report cards this year, each moving into the top-five. The Commanders moved from No. 11 to third as the organization continues to improve after Dan Snyder sold the team. The Seahawks jumped from No. 15 to fourth after their Super Bowl-winning campaign. It will be interesting to see where they land in the years to come after their ownership change as the team’s current ownership received an “A” grade. The Jaguars also had a significant rise, improving from No. 18 to fifth in Year 1 under Liam Coen.
The Jets also notably rose from No. 29 to No. 18. Though owner Woody Johnson was among those that expressed opposition to the report cards, his grade ascended from an “F” to a “B.”
