Vikings finish 2nd among NFLPA report cards, touted as ‘gold standard’ for treatment of families

INDIANAPOLIS – The Vikings are once again a nearly straight-A franchise.

The team’s 2025 NFLPA Team Report Card placed it 2nd out of the league’s 32 teams, trailing only the Dolphins. The Vikings were first in the inaugural year of grading (2023) and second last year.

The Vikings were Top 3 in seven individual categories this year and only finished outside the Top 10 in one.

During a news conference on the report cards at the NFL Combine on Wednesday morning, NFLPA Chief Strategy Officer JC Tretter said 77% of membership responded with a total 1,695 ballots received. Ballots were collected between Aug. 26 and Nov. 20, and the NFLPA looked for any correlation between whether a team had just won or lost when their ballots were received.

The league-wide average grade for 2025 was a B.

Vikings players continue to tout the team’s treatment of their families, and the NFLPA referred to Minnesota as the “gold standard” in the category on this year’s report card.

Tretter said under a new question posed on this year’s survey — “What’s the best thing your team does?” — the Vikings had high praise for how the organization cares for them and their loved ones, aligning with their A-plus grade and first-place finish in treatment of families.

Both daycare and a family room is provided by the Vikings during home games, and the post-game family area was rated a 9.02 out of 10.

Those amenities are ones that have drastically improved since the first report card in 2023, when 11 teams did not offer daycare for their players' children. This year, only three do not provide that service, Tretter said.

Besides treatment of families, the Vikings also received high marks for locker room, head coach and ownership.

They were one of five teams to receive a perfect score for adequate locker room size. Head coach Kevin O’Connell ranked third in his receptiveness to locker room feedback on team needs, and owner Zygi Wilf ranked the same in both contribution to a positive team culture and commitment to building a competitive team.

The Vikings have never finished with an individual grade below a B since the inception of the report cards in 2023 and raised both their B grades from last year’s report card.

Most notably, the training staff grade rose from a B to an A.

The Vikings fired head athletic trainer Uriah Myrie in January 2024 and later promoted long-time staffer Matt Duhamel to associate head athletic trainer/director of rehabilitation.

Ninety-four percent of Vikings players said they receive ample one-on-one training treatment on this year’s report card, an increase of 6% from 2024. They also felt more strongly about how the training staff contributes to the team’s overall success.

Nutritionist and dietitian is where the Vikings were graded the lowest this year, falling from a first-place A to a fifteenth-place B-plus.

Eighty-three percent of players said they receive an individualized nutrition plan, but players said their dietician is “very accessible.”

The Vikings' food/dining area received an A-minus, up from a B-plus last year. Players requested more variety in food options but rated both the taste and freshness of their food above an 8.

Tretter said the NFLPA has seen significant positive changes in overall league grades since 2023. There was a 41% increase in grades an A-minus or above from 2024 to 2025, and there were nearly three times as many A-plus grades as last year.

Even the lowest grades have risen: Failing grades (Fs and F-minuses) have been cut by 55%.

“We’re not seeing a ton of terrible experiences, which is one of the goals of this is raising the levels of standards throughout,” Tretter said, noting that accountability is the “No. 1 priority” of the report cards.