After three-consecutive years for the Minnesota Vikings finishing in the top two of the NFLPA report cards, they won’t be able to duplicate that. An arbitrator has ruled that the NFLPA report cards violate the collective bargaining agreement, meaning they won’t be released this season.

Over the last three seasons, the Vikings have finished atop the rankings in the NFLPA report cards all three years:

2023: 1st
2024: 2nd
2025: 2nd

NFL owners complain to get NFLPA report cards eliminated

Removing the NFLPA report cards don’t help anyone. In fact, they hurt organizations more than anything. The reason this process started at all is due to bruised egos, as New York Jets owner Woody Johnson graded as an F last year, and pushed for them to be removed.

The decision went to an arbitrator, who ruled that it went against the collective bargaining agreement. The memo sent to NFL teams has stark claims about the NFLPA’s lack of transparency.

“Throughout the course of these proceedings, despite numerous requests, the NFLPA steadfastly refused to produce any information or data related to prior years’ surveys. However, at the hearing, the NFLPA’s witness and counsel characterized the Report Cards as “union speech” and admitted that: (1) the union reviewed player responses and cherry-picked which topics and responses to include (or not) in the Team Report Cards; (2) players had no role in drafting the commentary included in the Report Cards which was written entirely by union staffers; (3) the union selected which annonymous individual player quotations to include (or exclude entirely) to support its chosen narrative; and (4) the union determined the weight to give each topic and the resulting impact on the alphabetical grades it assigned. In essence, the record established that the Report Cards were designed by the union to advance its interests under the guise of a scientific exercise.”

That reads like, “we aren’t happy with the results, so we’re claiming massive bias.” The quotes are picked based on the scores given by the players. If they score something highly, they likely won’t include any negative quotes in the press release, and vice versa for anything that is negative.

Former NFL player and future Hall of Famer J.J. Watt had a great counter to owners being upset about the report cards: Pro Football Focus grades on Sunday Night Football broadcasts.

The Vikings won’t get to celebrate another top finish, which is a shame considering how well they finish each year.