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NFLPA Report Card: Eagles Need Two Upgrades 'As Soon as Possible'
USA Today

The Philadelphia Eagles moved up 10 spots in the second annual NFLPA Team Report Cards that were released on Wednesday, ranking No. 4 overall.

In addition, owner Jeffrey Lurie, head coach Nick Sirianni, as well as the Eagles' strength and training staffs all received impressive grades when matched against their peers.

Lurie and Sirianni didn't have to hide their report cards and both generated A grades. An amazing 100 percent of Eagles' players polled agreed with the sentiment that Sirianni was efficient with their time, ranking the head coach No. 1 overall. In even better news, Sirianni finished seventh when it came to players feeling he was willing to listen to the locker room, a salvo on the recent series of rumors questioning the Eagles' culture and locker room harmony.

The only coaches who graded higher than Sirianni were Super Bowl winner Andy Reid of Kansas City, as well as Detroit's Dan Campbell, and Minnesota's Kevin O'Connell.

 

It should be noted that the poll wrapped up by mid-November when the Eagles were still flying high and before the late-season collapse that ended with a Wild Card blowout loss to Tampa Bay. That said, any player raving about Sirianni to that point and doing a 180 in times of turmoil is a sentiment that should be taken with a grain of salt.

Lurie, meanwhile, received a rating of 9.4 out of 10 from players when considering his willingness to invest in the facilities at the NovaCare Complex, which is a bit outdated with a smaller footprint in South Philadelphia than many state-of-the-art facilities around the league. The Eagles' owner was only outpaced by the Vikings' Zygi Wilf and the Dolphins' Stephen Ross.

The top two teams -- Miami and Minnesota -- have impressive new facilities while Green Bay finished at No. 3. The Vikings were No. 1 in the 2023 survey.

The Eagles also made a significant effort to improve in areas the players thought were lacking from last year's survey, most notably, team travel, the training room, and the locker room.

When it came to travel the Eagles added a second chartered flight for road trips so most players would have a row to themselves. 

SI.com's Eagles Today was also able to uncover that the organization started using buses from out of state with lay-flat seating in 2023. Although lacking space in the locker room, the team did a better job of spacing with the movable, temporary lockers in the middle of the room but there is a limitation on what it can do. The Eagles also upgraded their hot/cold tubs after complaints about how small they were.

The players still want to see upgrades when it comes to travel and the locker room, however.

“The players mention two priority areas that they would like to see upgraded as soon as possible. First is the team’s travel setup. Players feel crammed in the back of the plane while the staff sits in first class. The second issue players mention is the need for a renovated locker room, which feels outdated," the report card states.

The team believes that there is not enough first-class seating available in any chartered setting to avoid inequities among the players so the move was made to try to give as many as possible a full row. 

The Eagles do not require players to have roommates on the road or at the team hotel during training camp, which is well received.

Philadelphia also scored very well when it came to the cafeteria (A) and weight room (A-).

The organization only graded satisfactory in the treatment of families and went backward to a C, something tied to a lack of on-site daycare on game days and the family room at Lincoln Financial Field which was instituted last season but needs to be bigger according to multiple players.

The report cards were generated by the anonymous feedback of 1,706 players and every player in the NFL at the time of the survey was encouraged to participate, according to the NFLPA.

“The league and its clubs always encourage and solicit player feedback to help improve all facets of their NFL experience. We look forward to getting the opportunity to review the union’s questionnaire, and the data supporting it, after its release to the media," the league said in a statement. “When we first learned of this survey yesterday, we took the opportunity again to invite the union to join the NFL in a rigorous and third-party scientific-based survey as we have previously done and is mandated by the collective bargaining agreement.”

This article first appeared on FanNation Eagle Maven and was syndicated with permission.

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