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INDIANAPOLIS — The new joint surfaces committee apparently has its work cut out for it.
That was one of the eyebrow-raising revelations in the latest NFLPA report card, which was obtained by ESPN on Thursday and showcased some interesting criticisms from players. Among them: A solid wave of bad grades for home-field playing surfaces in various corners of the league, the very issue the joint surfaces committee is supposed to address. According to ESPN’s report, 18 of the league’s 32 teams had their home field rated as a C+ or worse. Of that 18, 10 franchises were a D or worse, including a shocking seven F’s.
The breakdown of the shoddy surfaces in descending order, starting at C+:
Green Bay Packers — C+
Houston Texans — C+
Chicago Bears — C
Dallas Cowboys — C
Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams — C (they share a home field)
New Orleans Saints — C
Atlanta Falcons — C-
Indianapolis Colts — D
New England Patriots — D
Cincinnati Bengals — D-
Buffalo Bills — F
Carolina Panthers — F
Seattle Seahawks — F
New York Jets and New York Giants — F- (they share a field)
Pittsburgh Steelers — F-
Tennessee Titans — F-
As it stands, the Bills and Titans are both currently building new stadiums that will feature new surfaces, while the Bears are in exploratory stages with plans to build a dome somewhere in the Midwest. Even with those teams moving toward change, the poor grades for so many teams is a glaring rebuke of NFL playing surfaces, which have repeatedly come under fire from the players union over the past decade — largely over complaints about field turf, inconsistent standards or maintenance it deems shoddy. It’s an issue that is expected to be a significant point of saber-rattling in the next round of collective bargaining negotiations between the NFL and the NFLPA, particularly if the league’s team owners remain adamant over adding an 18th game to the regular season.
That may be one of the reasons the NFL sought — and won — a grievance earlier this month that banned the union from publishing player report cards. Following the decision, the NFLPA vowed to continue collecting data for the annual report cards, which are still allowed to be privately released to the league’s players. However, the union will no longer answer questions or issue statements about the results, which is a significant departure from the past and also limits the full context of why players voted in the manner they did.
As expected, it didn’t stop the report cards from leaking, with ESPN obtaining and publishing the results. The decision to grade playing surfaces was one of six new wrinkles in the report cards, which also added grades for head coach, all three coordinator positions, and general manager.
Among some of the other notable grades coming out of the ESPN report:
The Las Vegas Raiders’ offensive coordinator spot received an F, effectively stomping on the performance of Chip Kelly, who butted heads with head coach Pete Carroll and was ultimately fired after only 11 games. The opinion of Carroll and the rest of his staff wasn’t great, either, with Carroll getting a C+, former defensive coordinator Patrick Graham (who is now the DC of the Steelers) earning a C, and former special teams coach Tom McMahon getting a C-. The players’ feelings certainly provides context behind the team firing the coaching staff and starting over this offseason.
Speaking of Graham heading to the Steelers, Pittsburgh was hammered in multiple categories that went beyond the team’s F-minus field surface. Steelers players also had issues with ownership (D-), treatment of families (F), team travel (F) and locker room (F-). According to the ESPN report, Pittsburgh was rated last overall in the aggregate grades. That’s quite a fall for the Rooney family, who has historically been considered one of the league’s better ownership groups.
The Bengals had a few more lowlights aside from their playing surface (D-), with ownership earning a D+, and three F’s for nutrition/dietician (F), food and dining area (F-) and treatment of families (F-). In conversations with Yahoo Sports, some NFL agents have stressed that their clients are taking the “treatment of families” category very seriously when choosing potential destinations in free agency. Cincinnati wasn’t the only team to get a black eye in that department this year, with the Arizona Cardinals (D+), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (D), Cleveland Browns (D-) and Steelers (F-) all getting poor grades.
Some other odds and end
Cardinals ownership got the worst rating in the league (F) … the Browns also had poor grades in food and dining (D+), locker room (F) and had their entire coaching staff outside of defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz (A-) receive substandard reviews, including head coach Kevin Stefanski (C-), offensive coordinator Tommy Rees (D+) and special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone (D) … returning New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen scored a D+ from his players, the poorest grade for any GM in the survey … In an interesting twist, Minnesota Vikings players gave GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah an A prior to his firing and Adofo-Mensah finding a landing spot in the San Francisco 49ers personnel department this month.