Falcons land at 25th on NFLPA 2024 Report Card

The red helmets, though, get an A++.

The second annual NFLPA Club Report Cards have been released. The idea of the club report cards was brought up by players, so that they may essentially use it as a sort of “free agency guide,” as the report cards release shortly before free agency starts. The goal is to give players a better read of the organization they’re considering joining.

The NFLPA sends out surveys to players who respond with feedback about their respective organizations. In 2024, 1,706 active NFL players completed the survey, or about 77%. The Miami Dolphins ranked first, with the Minnesota Vikings coming in right behind them in second.

In 2023, the first year of the report card, the Atlanta Falcons were ranked 23rd out of 32 teams. Their poor marks with strength training and locker room categories where they ranked 27th and 25th respectively, led to the team working to upgrade those facilities.

It will be interesting to see what the team does in 2024, as the Falcons have surprisingly gotten worse, coming in at 25 out of 32 NFL teams in their report card this year.

Their overview states:

“The Atlanta Falcons rank near the bottom in several categories. The good news, though, is that they have already started to make some major upgrades to their training facility. They are set to upgrade their weight room, locker room and cafeteria – all areas that players called out as needing improvements – which should result in ratings improvements once complete. The number one issue that the players felt needed improvement at the time of the survey was the head strength coach, who is no longer with the club. He received the lowest grade of any strength coach. The players described a negative culture in the weight room; though, it is important to note that the respondents made it a point to say that the assistant strength coaches are great.”

It was interesting to see that former head coach Arthur Smith received a C+ grade, good for 30th in the league. Only 67% of Falcons’ players felt that he was efficient with their time. With that being said though, players did feel that team owner Arthur Blank was doing a good job, as he received a rating of 9.1/10 from the Falcons players when considering his willingness to invest in the facilities, 9th best in the league.

Overall, it’s not great to see that the team has slipped further in the rankings, but they have a plan to upgrade facilities and both a new head coach and new strength and conditioning coach, meaning that they’ve addressed most of the major concerns from this report. Let’s just hope that potential free agents recognize that when they read this.

To view the full report NFLPA 2024 Report Card, click here.