4 Takeaways from the NFLPA's report card on the Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears find themselves in the middle of the pack in the NFLPA's annual report card for how players perceive their teams, a lower ranking than they received last year.

Dennis Wierzbicki-Imagn Images

The NFLPA has released the latest version of its annual report cards. The NFLPA surveys every player from every team and gives grades on things like dining facilities, travel accommodations, and ownership.

Unfortunately, it appears the Chicago Bears are headed in the wrong direction. They slipped from the 10th best grade last year to just 14th following the 2024 season.

A big part of that drop has to do with the Bears' former head coach and the grade he received. But there were other notable grades, some that are surprisingly positive, that Bears fans can take away from this report card.

1. Chicago's facilities are top notch

Say what you want about the Ryan Pace era, but his time as general manager left a strong, positive legacy on the NFL's flagship franchise. He played a key role in the Halas Hall renovations unveiled in 2019, and these facilities have consistently scored highly on the NFLPA's report cards. The locker room and weight room came in at 8th and 6th, respectively. The training room fell just out of the top ten, coming in at 11th.

2. Treatment of families still lagging behind the rest of the league

When the NFLPA first rolled out these report cards in 2023, the most shocking revelation about the Bears was how low they scored in the 'treatment of families' category. That year, they got a C- which was bottom ten in the league.

Clearly, the team listened to the players. In 2024, this grade improved to C+, 11th best in the league. The grade this year stays the same, but now it's fallen to just 19th best. It's good to see that the franchise made real strides in the care they show for players' families, but they still have a long way to go.

3. Supporting staff gets strong grades

According to the report, 85% of Bears players felt they got enough one-on-one time with trainers, and a whopping 98% felt like they received a personalized training program from their strength coaches. As Ben Johnson made clear since his first day on the job, the team can only be as good as their support staff, so this has to be encouraging for Bears fans.

4. Players believe in what the McCaskey family is doing

The McCaskey family, as owners of the Chicago Bears, may get a bad rap from fans and analysts around the league, but the players clearly feel otherwise. Arguably the most surprising part of this report card was that the players rated the McCaskey family as 'extremely committed' to building a competitive team.

Over the years, there has been plenty of talk in the NFL about the McCaskey family, with some claiming they are too cheap to build a winning team or that they lack interest in the Bears' success. However, players strongly disagree with this perspective, which should be reassuring for Bears fans.

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