The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) has released the results from an annual survey that asks players to evaluate their experiences with their respective team. Overall, the Denver Broncos ranked in the middle of the road – 16th of 32 teams – though responses shined light on the highs and lows of the Mile High City NFL experience, including a situation in which multiple vehicles were reportedly stolen from the mandated team hotel during training camp, as well as poor treatment of families.

Let’s start with the highs – the Broncos were scored a report card ‘A’ in terms of ‘ownership,’ ranking 5th among the 32 teams in this category. This high score is, in part, due to club owner Greg Penner’s willingness to invest in the team’s facilities.

The Broncos also earned a high ‘A-‘ in the ‘head coach’ category of metrics, though this was only good enough to rank 17th among the 32 teams. A reported 28 percent of Broncos players who were surveyed felt that Sean Payton is inefficient with their time.

Now let’s talk about the bad – ‘treatment of families’ and ‘locker room’ metrics both resulted in a ‘D’-range grade.

The Broncos earned a D-plus when it came to ‘treatment of families,’ one of 12 teams that do not provide a family room at their stadium.

When it came to the ‘locker room’ metrics, the team ranked 26th with a ‘D’ grade. The locker room was the top pain point that players wanted to be addressed, with 39 percent of players feeling like the locker room is too small, providing little personal space.

Both ‘treatment of families’ and ‘locker room’ metrics were a problem in the 2023 report, as well, each graded as a D-plus that year.

One area where the Broncos did see a grade improvement was in the category of food-related topics, jumping from a D to a B-range score in this portion of the survey. Categorized as a singular ‘food service and nutrition’ category in the 2023 NFLPA survey – with the Broncos then scoring a D, this was split into categories of ‘food/cafeteria’ and ‘nutritionist/dietician’ in 2024, with the Broncos achieving a B and B-plus grade in those categories, respectively. Players noted that the hiring of a new dietician resulted in a significant improvement in terms of ‘team nutrition’ over the last season.

Overall, the Denver Broncos rank of 16th among all 32 NFL teams was a jump from last year, when the Broncos ranked 20th.

Oddly enough, survey responses from players on the Kansas City Chiefs team resulted in a 31st-place ranking for the back-to-back Super Bowl champion organization. Training staff, locker room, nutrition, and ownership categories all got a grade in the ‘F’-range, with ‘ownership’ scoring a ‘F-minus’ despite all of the recent success.

The worst ranking team, however, was the Washington Commanders, ranking 32nd and getting an ‘F’ score in categories of treatment of families, locker room, training room, training staff, and team travel. Sanitation and maintenance issues with hot tubs and cold tubs used by players were reported, as well as locker room sewage leaks.

The Miami Dolphins ranked the highest overall, with an ‘A’-range grade in all 11 categories of topics included on the survey.

Find the full Broncos NFLPA report card here.