Detroit Lions rank 15th in player-voted NFLPA report card

On Wednesday, the NFLPA revealed the results of a new venture. After surveying 1,300 players in the league about their own teams, they have collected the results and formulated a report card for all 32 franchises in a eight different categories: treatment of families, food service/nutrition, weight room, strength coaches, training room, training staff, locker room, and team travel.

Note: These surveys were conducted between March 1, 2022 and April 1, 2022.

Each team got an individual grade for each category and a rank among the other NFL teams. Then the NFLPA gathered all the data and ranked all teams from 1 to 32.

The Detroit Lions fell almost exactly in the middle of these rankings at 15th overall. Here are their individual grades for each category, and their ranking in those categories among all teams:

• Treatment of families: B (t-12th)
• Food service/nutrition: D- (28th)
• Weight room: B+ (t-13th)
• Strength coach: A- (t-17th)
• Training room: D+ (t-24th)
• Training staff: B+ (t-22nd)
• Locker room: B (t-14th)
• Team travel: A (t-4th)

Obviously, the Lions have a lot to improve upon when it comes to their food service and training room. It’s worth noting that back in 2019, the Lions hired a new Director of Performance Nutrition.

It’s also interesting that while the training staff has a fairly decent B+ grade, the training room itself was given a D+. Again, the Lions have recently invested here, as they hired well-respected Brett Fisher as their director of player health and performance this offseason. Fisher has run a very popular offseason facility for players, so hopefully he can upgrade the Lions in this department.

It’s both good to see and no surprise that the Lions rank highly in treatment of family, as they’ve taken a more personal approach to their players under coach Dan Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes. In fact, in the latest episode of “Inside the Den,” Penei Sewell’s father talks extensively about how well they have treated Penei. (around the 18:15 mark)

In case you were wondering, the entire NFC North ranks quite highly overall. The Vikings are the No. 1 team overall, the Packers are sixth, and the Bears are 13th. The worst team in the NFL is the Washington Commanders.

You can see all of the ratings here.