NFLPA survey: Players rank Seahawks coach tops
Published 10:00 am Thursday, February 27, 2025
They love their coach, especially how efficiently he uses their time.
They would like larger hot and cold tubs, please.
And owner Jody Allen? They feel the team’s chair “moderately” contributes to a positive team culture.
Those are highlighted findings of the NFL Players’ Association’s annual team-by-team report card from a survey of Seahawks players during this past 2024 season.
The Seahawks rated 15th overall, out of the league’s 32 teams. That’s a tick down from 14th in last year’s survey.
The union asks players to rate teams in the areas of: treatment of families (Seattle’s players ranked their team an A-, fifth out of 32 teams), food/dining area (B, 15th), nutritionist/dietician (B, 21st), locker room (B+, 11th), training room (C, 26th), training staff (B-, 23rd), weight room (B, 17th), strength coaches (A-, 11th), team travel (A-, seventh), head coach (A, 13th) and ownership (C+, 23rd).
The Miami Dolphins ranked first overall and the Minnesota Vikings second in this NFLPA survey. This was the third year the union did it.
The Seahawks’ NFC West-rival Arizona Cardinals ranked last.
Seattle’s players gave first-year head coach Mike Macdonald an A rating. All 100% of the Seahawks feel the league’s youngest head man is efficient with their time. The NFLPA said he is one of six coaches across the league to receive a perfect score for that.
The players also gave the team a high mark, an A-, for team travel. That is no small feat for a Seattle team that annually has the longest flights to road games in the NFL.
The NFLPA noted 98% of the Seahawks players believe they have a comfortable amount of personal space on team flights, ranking Seattle fourth out of 32 teams. The Seahawks this past season began traveling on a charter jet service with most of the seats wide-bodied, first-class accommodations.
The players ranked Allen, the team’s chair since her brother and team owner Paul Allen died during the 2018 season, 23rd in the league in “perceived willingness to invest in the facilities. Her score was 7.52 out of 10 for that.
Seahawks players feel Allen “moderately contributes to a positive team culture, a rank of 21 out of 32,” and that she “is committed to building a competitive team, (with) a rank of 24 of the 32 NFL owners.”
That added up to an ownership rating of C+.
An issue the players raised in last year’s survey remains: the sizes of the hot and cold tubs many players almost live in at the Seahawks’ Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton during the season. The NFLPA stated 51% of players feel they have enough hot tub space, a rank of 31 out of 32 teams in the league. The survey showed 53% of players feel they have enough cold tub space, a rank of 32 out of 32.
The union said the Seahawks contacted it after the NFLPA conducted its survey to say the hot and cold tubs are getting renovated and enlarged this offseason. The team expects the work in that part of the training room to be finished before training camp this summer.
Seahawks players raised the grade of how their team treats families from a C last year to an A-. That was after the Seahawks added a family room inside Lumen Field for spouses and family members to use with their kids during home games. The union stated the players “feel that the team frequently organizes family events throughout the year, which ranks 7 out of 32 teams.”
