For the second year in a row, the NFLPA has released their annual report card evaluating each team in the league. This report card aims to evaluate every team in the league on how they are viewed across the league by the players who play for them.
Each year, the NFLPA sends out surveys to every player in the league, and their answers are recorded anonymously to produce the report cards. Each team is ranked 1-32 based on answers in 11 different categories, such as how players feel about the head coach, owner, training staff, food, etc.
For the second year in a row, the Minnesota Vikings are one of the league’s standout organizations. Across the survey’s 11 categories, the Vikings were ranked either first or second in eight of them. Of the three the Vikings fell outside the top 2, they ranked no lower than 9th.
According to the players, the Vikings were the top team in terms of their treatment of players’ families, the nutritionist/dietician on staff, the locker room environment, and their strength and conditioning coaches. Minnesota came in second regarding their training room, team travel accommodations, the head coach, and the team’s ownership.
The Vikings’ two worst scores were for their training staff (9th in the league) and their weight room (8th in the league).
The survey goes on to break each category down further, giving examples of what players said about each category to earn the rankings. The Vikings were singled out for their family room at the stadium and for providing daycare for players’ children on gameday.
On the low end, only 88% of players felt they received enough one-on-one treatment from the training staff, and felt that the staff only moderately contributed to their success.
Regarding head coach Kevin O’Connell, 98% of the players believed that O’Connell is efficient with their time, and the players stated that O’Connell is “very willing to listen to the locker room”.
All this paints a picture of an organization that is doing things the right way, and has built an environment that players want to be a part of. That’s clear in players like Aaron Jones wanting to come to the Vikings after spending his entire career with division rival Green Bay.
Only the Miami Dolphins got a better overall score from the players than the Vikings.