Training room facilities and training staff remain an issue among Seahawks players.
For the second year in a row, the NFL Players’ Association (NFLPA) has released “report cards” based off of player survey results for their respective teams. The grades are based on off of treatment of family, food/nutritional services, quality of the locker room, travel, training facilities, and more.
Here’s a brief explainer from the NFLPA:
The second annual NFLPA Club Report Cards are here. For many years, our players brought up the idea of creating a “Free Agency Guide” that would illuminate what the daily experience is for players and their families at each team. Last year, we created the first version of that guide, and it was a success on several levels: Players were more informed about how their workplace compared to others across the NFL; some clubs made immediate improvements based on the information we published; it gave our union a platform to advocate for raising workplace standards across the NFL.
This year’s survey had a higher participation rate than last year, as well as new categories, additional questions, some grading tweaks, and transparency on how the overall grades are weighted.
Last season, the Seattle Seahawks ranked 11th overall, but this season they’ve dropped slightly in the report card rankings to a so-so 14th. Here’s the overview:
The Seattle Seahawks ranked 14th overall in the annual report. The franchise decided to move on from longtime head coach Pete Carroll, but at the time of the survey, he received strong grades from the players in the locker room. The team scores slightly above or close to average in most of the categories. The number one issue the players feel needs to be addressed is the lack of staffing and resources provided in the training room, with respondents noting that there are not enough quality trainers, limiting the players’ ability for one-one-one treatment for injury recovery and prevention. Respondents also noted that the aquatic room needs to be updated.
Seattle does provide family daycare on gamedays, but is one of just 12 teams without a family room during the games. Food quality has high marks both in taste and freshness, and the Seahawks respondents largely believed they were getting good service from the nutritionists.
Team travel was a C last year and remains a C this year. Personal room seems to be an issue among players, and unless something changed from 2022, the Seahawks are one of just seven teams without first-class seating.
The Seahawks’ locker room gets a B, the strength coaches get an A (as they did last year), and Pete Carroll got an A on his way out. Keep in mind that 19 of 32 teams had A grades for the head coach, and the bottom three (Raiders, Commanders, Falcons) all fired theirs.
Now to the bad stuff (comparatively speaking). The training staff ranks 27th with a C+ grade:
81% of players feel they have enough full-time trainers (24th overall)
Only 71% of players feel they have enough full-time physical therapists (26th overall)
Only 64% of players feel they have enough hot tub space (27th overall)
Only 78% of players feel they have enough cold tub space (23rd overall)
Tied to the training staff is the training room:
Only 76% of players feel like they receive enough one-on-one treatment (29th overall)
The players feel that the training staff moderately contributes to their success (25th overall)
The lower grades are connected to the players’ feedback that the training room is understaffed. Several players feel there are not enough trainers or physical therapists, which limits the amount of one-on-one treatment players can receive.
Lastly, one of the new categories (alongside head coach) is ownership, which also makes up 15 percent of the weighted grade. Jody Allen got a C+, which puts the Seahawks in the bottom-10:
Club chair Jody Allen receives a rating of 7.9/10 from Seahawk players when considering her willingness to invest in the facilities (23rd overall)
The San Francisco 49ers were the only NFC West team in the top-10, coming in 6th, so the quest for six has been achieved. Not only were the Arizona Cardinals 27th, but ownership received an F grade.
Hey, having great results in this survey does not directly correlate with winning. The Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs ranked 31st, with nearly uniformly awful grades in every category except head coach Andy Reid. Clark Hunt got an F-, and this season the Chiefs “finally provided actual chairs for players to use at their lockers.”
The Cincinnati Bengals apparently have just five functioning toilets for the entire team, the Los Angeles Chargers make their players pay for daycare, and the Washington Commanders have a lot of work to do under new ownership.
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