Miami Dolphins and Minnesota Vikings in ‘tier of their own’ as NFLPA releases team report cards

NFL players have voted on working conditions for teams, and the Miami Dolphins and Minnesota Vikings are in a “tier of their own.”

Conversely, the Washington Commanders, Kansas City Chiefs — who beat the Dolphins in the playoff last month and are fresh off a Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ers — and Los Angeles Chargers have the three worst report cards.

The Dolphins have the best report card of any team in the league and finished tops in the NFL in several categories, such as food/cafeteria, training room, training staff, weight room, team travel and ownership.

“The Miami Dolphins are the top-ranked team in our 2024 Report Card,” Miami’s report card read. “Club owner Stephen Ross is the highest-graded club owner in our survey, receiving a near perfect score. The club owner’s ranking reflects the strong performance in key areas that players care about, including the quality of their facilities, the comfort of players’ travel, and the quality and quantity of staff across multiple categories.

“The state-of-the-art facilities continue to impress, but more importantly, are complemented by the number of quality trainers, strength coaches and other support staff who help make the workplace experience one of the best across the league. More details and examples are in each section below.”

Miami received A+ grades in both the weight room and ownership categories. The players praised the equipment and space they have to work with in the weight room. Also, Dolphins players gave owner Stephen Ross an excellent rating of 9.9 when it comes to his readiness to invest in facilities.

Interestingly, the Dolphins’ lowest ranking came in the head coach category, as the team finished eighth out of the 32 NFL teams. Mike McDaniel has been the head coach of Miami for two seasons. Before coaching the team to an 11-6 record in the 2023 regular season, McDaniel helped lead the Dolphins to a 9-8 record in the 2022 regular season.

The lion’s share of players on the Dolphins believe that McDaniel is efficient with the team’s time, 94 percent to be exact. But that number ranks just 14th in the NFL. However, the players seem to feel very strongly that their head coach is willing to listen to the locker room, as the Dolphins finished second overall in that regard.

Outside of the head coach category, the Dolphins finished in the top three in every category of the report card and didn’t receive a grade worse than an A- in any single category.

The fantastic grades that the Dolphins received across the board on their team report card speak volumes of the organization and will hopefully convince more great players to join the team.