One of the most illuminating elements of the NFL offseason is always the team report cards, in which players grade their own organizations on categories ranging from facilities to owner and coach satisfaction. However, it seems those report cards being made available to the public will soon be a thing of the past.
On Friday, the NFL informed its franchises that it was successful in a grievance filed against the NFL Players Association over those report cards. The arbitrator in the case ordered that the NFLPA no longer publicize team report cards.
It's a ruling that's sure to be controversial, and one former star player has already spoken out. JJ Watt took to social media to criticize the league, arguing that NBC's Sunday Night Football is permitted to use player grades from a third-party service like Pro Football Focus while preventing players from grading their employers.
"NFL won’t let actual players grade the workplace they attend every single day, but they’ll allow a 3rd party “grading” service to display their “rankings” of players on national television every Sunday night…" Watt wrote.
NFL won’t let actual players grade the workplace they attend every single day, but they’ll allow a 3rd party “grading” service to display their “rankings” of players on national television every Sunday night… https://t.co/JBQXOgFZIN
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) February 13, 2026
His post drew agreement from an active NFL star, as San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle replied, "Go off jj."
Go off jj
— George Kittle (@gkittle46) February 13, 2026
While the report cards were certainly of interest to NFL fans, they also presented an opportunity for players to voice criticisms of their employers and workplaces. Moving to prevent those report cards from becoming public is likely to draw significant backlash, as Watt and Kittle's posts demonstrate.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: JJ Watt criticized NFL after it ended public team report cards