The New Orleans Saints landed No. 11 overall in the NFLPA's annual report cards, with the results reported Thursday by ESPN.
The league won a grievance preventing the results from being distributed publicly, but that didn't stop the information from getting out. The Saints reflected well in the rankings, landing 9 A grades and only one grade below a B (home game field).
Here's the full grades for the Saints (2025 grades grade in parantheses):
- Treatment of families: B+ (C)
- Home game field: C (n/a)
- Food/dining area: A- (D-)
- Nutritionist/dietician: B+ (B+
- Locker room: B (A-)
- Training room: A (B+)
- Training staff: A (B+)
- Weight room: A- (B+)
- Strength coaches: A (A)
- Position coaches: B- (n/a)
- Offensive coordinator: B- (n/a)
- Defensive coordinator: A (n/a)
- Special teams coordinator: A- (n/a)
- Team travel: A- (A)
- Head coach: A- (B-)
- General manager: B (n/a)
- Team ownership: A- (A)
Due to the lack of an official release, specifics as to what pushed grades higher or lower were not available. The team will likely be pleased with one grade in particular: Food/dining area.
The Saints invested heavily in a renovation of the dining facility during the 2024 offseason, which prompted the team to hold its training camp in California. That investment clearly was received well, with the new facility grading at an A- after a landing a D- and F each of the past two seasons.
Another big area of improvement was that of head coach, which climbed to an A- after grades of B- (29th overall) in each of the prior two years. The Saints also saw an uptick in their treatment of families grade (C to B+), but otherwise remained close to static in several categories. The team also climbed up one spot from No. 12 in last year's report card.
This year's edition of the report card also included grades for all three coordinators and GM, with defensive coordinator Brandon Staley landing the highest grade (A).
Related
The annual report card was an initiative enacted by the NFLPA three years ago to serve as an unofficial roadmap for players as they navigate the league and free agency. The NFL this year filed a grievance that claimed the survey was in violation of the league's collective bargaining agreement. An arbitrator ruled in favor of that grievance and barred the results from being distributed publicly. The NFLPA vowed to continue collecting and distributing the annual surveys, even if it was barred from publishing them.
The data was compiled from survey responses spanning 1,759 NFL players across the league's 32 teams.