NFL Owners Want To Shut Down Often Embarrassing Annual Player Report Cards

Some NFL owners, embarrassed by the NFL Players Association's annual release of team report cards, have agreed to have the league file a grievance against the players union, asking for an end to the annual survey.

The NFL is claiming in its grievance that the exercise violates the Collective Bargaining Agreement because they publicly criticize teams, according to ESPN, which first reported the story.

Feb 5, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; The NFLPA logo at press conference at the Super Bowl LIX media center at the  Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Report Cards Inform Decisions

The report cards have become annual appointment reading among players and NFL media entities because they pull back the curtain on what is good and bad within teams based on player surveys of all the teams.

The release of the report cards, timed weeks prior to the start of the NFL's new league year and the opening of free agency, is meant to be a "resource that reflects [players'] daily experiences and opinions about their workplace conditions," according to the NFLPA.

Players have told OutKick that while the report cards do not necessarily decide where they might sign as free agents, it helps inform their decisions.

This is where the embarrassment part comes into play because, last year, for example, the Arizona Cardinals came in dead last in players' experiences, according to the survey.

Aug 16, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; General view of a Arizona Cardinals helmet during the second half against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

Teams Scoring Low Don't Like It

The Patriots, Browns, Jets and Steelers also rated at the bottom of the league. And they don't love the results being aired publicly even as they work to improve.

But the report is often a two-way street because it can offer opinions that don't line up with on-field success.

The 2025 report card, for example, clearly showed that player comfort and approval don't equate to success.

The Miami Dolphins have been the highest-graded team in the report card for two years running. That's the same Dolphins that finished under .500 and didn't make the playoffs last year.

HENDERSON, NEVADA - JANUARY 27: Pete Carroll laughs as he talks to people after being introduced as the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders during a news conference also introducing John Spytek as the team's general manager at the Las Vegas Raiders Headquarters/Intermountain Healthcare Performance Center on January 27, 2025 in Henderson, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Report Cards Don't Mirror Outcomes

In 2023, Seattle Seahawks head coach got an A grade from his players. And he was fired after Seattle finished the season 9-8.

And he wasn't hired during the ensuing hiring cycle. Carroll was eventually hired by the Las Vegas Raiders prior to this season but his team is an AFC West cellar dweller with a 2-7 record.

The report cards poll players on various aspects of working conditions, including food, weight training facilities, locker room, coaching, ownership and other matters.

Owners say the report cards violate a CBA clause that says NFL owners and the union must "use reasonable efforts to curtail public comments by club personnel or players which express criticism of any club, its coach, or its operation and policy," according to an August letter from the league's management council to NFLPA general counsel Tom DePaso, per ESPN.

OutKick has confirmed the league and the union have been discussing this matter for months. But there has been no progress in addressing the matter, per a source. 

The union has declined to cease producing the public report cards and, indeed, has already started the process of producing the one that will be released early in 2026. The union has emailed its players of its intentions to fight the grievance filed by the NFL.