The 2025 NFL Players Association report card has been revealed, and the New York Jets won’t want to show this one to their parents.
Based on survey results from players, who were asked to grade various off-field elements of their clubs, the Jets ranked near the bottom of the league in all but one of 11 categories. This includes bottom-five rankings in categories such as the food/dining area, strength coaches, and training staff. The lowest-graded category was the team owner, Woody Johnson, who stood alone as the only NFL owner to earn an F grade.
However, according to the Jets’ franchise record holder for single-season passing touchdowns, this report card is a bunch of baloney.
Taking to social media, Ryan Fitzpatrick chimed in to “call bull s— on some of these rankings.” Fitzpatrick, who quarterbacked for the Jets from 2015-16, said the Jets’ facilities “were the nicest of my 9 teams by a long shot.”
Fitzpatrick, who went to Harvard, listed five possible explanations for the low grades. Firstly, he says the Jets may have downgraded their facilities since he was in town. Secondly, he suggests you “shut your pie hole” since “Fitz hasn’t been there since 2016.” (On second thought, does he mean his own pie hole? Or maybe the players? It is unclear. Scholars will debate this one for centuries.)
Fitzpatrick’s third point elicits pondering. He says that perhaps “young players are now delusional and too pampered from college facilities where football isn’t the main thing.” In the NIL era, this is a valid observation. However, regarding the Jets’ ranking, it may be an irrelevant factor since it applies to every NFL team.
His fourth point might be the best argument for why the Jets’ grades are lower than they should be. Fitzpatrick, who, I should mention, attended Harvard, suggests “players banded together because they don’t like ownership and didn’t give honest feedback in hopes to smear the reputation of the Jets.”
This is a very plausible possibility, considering how Jets players reacted to the mid-season firing of Robert Saleh. The survey was conducted from August 26 through November 20, which means any percentage of the responses could have been after Saleh’s October 8 firing. Additionally, it is important to note that Johnson earned a B- grade in the 2024 survey, which adds credence to the idea that players’ votes were skewed by their emotional reaction to the firing. Could Johnson really have gone from a B- owner to an F owner in one year?
Lastly, Fitzpatrick suggests that there may be “lots of complainers in the building.” Considering how often Jets players like to complain on social media, this could also be true.
We will probably never know how legitimate these grades are. Maybe the Jets are a well-run organization (off the field), and players’ biases influenced their responses. Maybe the Jets truly are one of the worst-run organizations in the NFL. Either way, the report card serves as a callout for the Jets to make improvements to their operations.
Part of that entails winning games on the field, but regarding this particular list, most of the work comes off the field. In this year’s survey, the Kansas City Chiefs ranked 26th overall, the Philadelphia Eagles ranked 22nd, and the Miami Dolphins ranked first. This isn’t a study that correlates with winning. It is intended to be a review of the players’ day-to-day life in the workplace. Facilitating improvement in these areas is entirely the owner’s responsibility.
But hey, if Fitzpatrick (who went to Harvard) is correct, maybe the Jets don’t have quite as much work to do as it seems, and they were simply the victims of some emotional responses by the players. Regardless, it is not a great look, and Johnson must try to rectify some of these problems in 2025 for the sake of both his own reputation and the organization’s.
