INDIANAPOLIS -- For the second year in a row, the Miami Dolphins and Minnesota Vikings earned top marks in the NFL Players Association's annual survey evaluating workplace environment.
Overall, grades improved in the union's latest survey, which was released Wednesday, with a 41% increase in areas earning an A-minus or higher and a 51% decrease in areas earning a D-plus or below.
The average grades of the bottom five teams -- Steelers, Jets, Browns, Patriots and Cardinals -- increased from a D-plus in 2024 to a C-minus in 2025.
"We really like the players to have a voice on their facilities, their working conditions, their likes, dislikes," NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell said. "... The report card really provided an opportunity to see the entire landscape. One of the objectives was to inform our guys, and we're well on our way to doing a better job with that. Number two was to effect change. Just in my short tenure of being executive director, I've seen new locker rooms, new weight rooms, addressing family situations in terms of childcare. It's not universal, but certainly got the attention of the front office, the owners, coaches, trainers, and the like.
"... I think what initially may have seemed as a shame campaign, it's really how do we improve the working conditions for our guys. And it effects improvement."
In its third year conducting the leaguewide report card, the NFLPA received responses from 77% of its membership -- or 1,695 players, averaging 52 responses per team. All players, including practice squad members, were eligible to participate in the report card. Surveys were conducted between Aug. 26 and Nov. 20.
Former NFLPA president and current chief strategy officer for the union J.C. Tretter said the report cards are important vehicles for players to give meaningful feedback to their teams while preserving anonymity. While demographics of the players are collected, names are not.
"I think it's a very rare person or player that is going to walk upstairs to their owner's office and say, 'This place is a dump,'" Tretter said. "You're not going to find that person very often -- they have other things to worry about. So I think the importance of this survey is it allows players to share their feedback in a way that they're protected as well."
After the Dolphins and Vikings -- two mainstays at the top of the rankings -- the Falcons, Raiders and the Chargers rounded out the top five, respectively. All three teams made significant jumps to land in the top five, but the Chargers made the biggest improvement in the rankings, rising from 30th in 2024 to fifth in 2025. The Falcons moved from 25th to third.
A significant factor in those rises, Tretter said, was the team's new practice facilities.
But there were other factors to the overall grade improvement for each team, and other teams made significant jumps without making major structural upgrades to their facilities. Tretter stressed that teams didn't necessarily have to spend millions to improve their workplace.
"That is definitely an easy way to move up," he said of building new facilities. "... They're also tangible changes they made outside of that, too. [The NFLPA] has been clear from the beginning on two things: one, this is not solely 'knock down walls in buildings.'
"There are softer issues -- when it comes to treatment of families, when it comes to travel, when it comes to staffing -- that make major differences for players. Yes, the physical facilities do too. There's multiple ways of solving your issues. The Chargers were one where the facilities were their major issue and they fixed it. And then you see the major jump that happens from there."
The Washington Commanders, who were ranked 32nd in the past two report cards, jumped to No. 11 in their second year since the ownership group headed by Josh Harris acquired the team from Dan Snyder. Players still cited concerns about their aging locker room and practice facility, but team grades for treatment of families, food and dining and head coach surged.
The ownership ranking for Washington also jumped from 18th to eighth.
"What's impressive about that is it really shows the point of this project -- where if you take the Commanders' facility, it's still the same facility," Tretter said. "[Harris] didn't knock down walls. He didn't rebuild it. He didn't do anything. He made changes in staffing. He made changes in what players had been asking for, kind of the softer skills areas of the facility, and he changed the culture there and you could feel that when you went there and you did the team visit."
The biggest improvement, players cited, was the hiring of head coach Dan Quinn, who was ranked as the top head coach in the survey.
"I think oftentimes when people think of me, it's culture and I want to make sure culture and environment are so much different," Quinn said Wednesday. "Environment is upbeat and I see the world in that way from a positive outlook, but culture is how we get down every day and that's the identity of our team or behaviors or habits. And so I wanted to make sure that type of identity and team, you could do that, but it would have to be through the team."
Quinn wasn't the only newcomer to earn top marks in the head coach category. Atlanta's Raheem Morris ranked No. 2. They were two of six head coaches to receive an A-plus in the category along with Minnesota's Kevin O'Connell, Kansas City's Andy Reid, Detroit's Dan Campbell and Miami's Mike McDaniel.
Every Falcons player surveyed said Morris was efficient with their time, and they said he was "highly receptive" to locker room feedback.
The lowest grades given to head coaches was a C given to a trio of coaches: Cleveland's Kevin Stefanski, Jacksonville's Doug Pederson and Chicago's Matt Eberflus. Both Pederson and Eberflus were fired.
Browns players said they felt Stefanski was "moderately receptive" to locker room feedback on the team's needs and ranked him 30 out of 32 head coaches. And 67% of Browns players felt Stefanski was efficient with their time, ranking him 29 out of 32.
Among the changes in this year's survey were two additional questions about ownership. Not only did the NFLPA ask players about their perception of ownership's willingness to invest in facilities, but they also surveyed players on ownership's positive contribution to team culture and commitment to building a competitive team.
Three owners received an A-plus in the ratings: Miami's Stephen Ross, Minnesota's Zygi Wilf and Atlanta's Arthur Blank.
Five owners received composite ownership grades of a D or worse: Pittsburgh's Art Rooney II, New England's Robert Kraft, Arizona's Michael Bidwell, Carolina's David Tepper and the Jets' Woody Johnson.
For the Steelers, who ranked 28th overall, a significant issue with ownership was Rooney's perceived willingness to invest in facilities. Players gave him an average rating of 6.00 out of 10 in the category, ranking him 30 out of 32 NFL owners.
But, Tretter noted, some owners, including Rooney, appeared more receptive to making changes this time than after receiving feedback from the previous two report cards.
"He's a very conservative guy," Howell said of Rooney. "I get the impression that he's opening up right now. It's probably not as big as changes I would like, but I think he's definitely listening to it. I know the GM is, so Omar [Khan] is like 'Hey, OK, what else can we do? What else can we do?' So, I mean, that's progress, right?"