The NFLPA's 2026 report cards are here, but they were never supposed to be. The Seahawks,
fresh off their Super Bowl championship, aced nearly every category, coming close to a perfect sweep. But one glaring failure on the card tells a story the franchise has been hearing from its own players for years. Now, a familiar voice from within is calling for urgent change.
"We just gotta fix our turf!" safety Quandre Diggs
wrote on X, retweeting the report cards after they went public.
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The Seahawks earned A grades in 14 of 17 categories, according to the report cards obtained by ESPN. From head coach to ownership, all received A-level grades. Seattle ranked fourth overall in the league, a remarkable jump from 15th in 2025. The one stain on an otherwise brilliant card? The home field earned a flat F.
That grade did not come out of nowhere. In 2024, the Seahawks invested in a brand-new FieldTurf CORE system at Lumen Field. It was a state-of-the-art synthetic surface designed to meet FIFA Quality Pro certification standards. The installation featured a heavyweight infill design, which was to reduce overall injury rates compared to other infill weights. But despite the upgrade, the Seahawks are moving on.
The entire field is set for a complete overhaul. And this time, it's going green. Lumen Field will swap its artificial turf for natural grass ahead of the six FIFA World Cup 2026 matches Seattle is scheduled to host. FIFA mandates natural grass for all tournament matches. That means the franchise will be tearing out its own playing surface to meet a soccer governing body's requirements.
However, there's a last detail that's making the player's frustrations so pointed. The grass goes back out once soccer leaves town. The turf debate came up at the Super Bowl, and the players made their feelings clear.
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"Real good grass just feels a lot better on your knees and your hips and your joints," said Nick Kallerup
, tight end for the Seattle Seahawks
.
The league, for its part, has consistently resisted the idea that the playing surface is a serious safety issue. Meanwhile, the NFLPA has pushed back for years, repeatedly calling on teams to switch from artificial turf to natural grass in an effort to reduce injuries.
NFLPA interim executive director David Whitenoted at the Super Bowl press conference that over 90 percent of the union's members prefer playing on grass. This is exactly something Diggs has been raising since the days when Pete Carrollwas still running the Seahawks.
"So you see that and you just kind of wonder why can't we have natural grass everywhere," Diggs said in 2022. "I love playing in San Francisco
and things like that where it's grass and you just go out there and you just go play. Hopefully, we're doing some research on it and seeing what we can do to make things better."
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Diggs had more than just a preference. He had a scar to point to. Back in 2022, the safety suffered a dislocated ankle and a broken fibula during a game at Arizona
's State Farm Stadium. He said his foot got stuck in the turf as he attempted a tackle. He linked the injury directly to the artificial surface.
Now, the grass installation is scheduled to be completed by May 2026, funded by the $19.4 million approved by the Washington State Legislature. But just as the turf story is gaining momentum, the report cards themselves have a story of their own. One that involves a legal fight, a leaked document, and a prediction that turned out to be exactly right.
The NFLPA report cards were never meant to go public, but they did anyway
The NFL had made it abundantly clear it wanted these grades buried. The league filed a grievance against the NFLPA, arguing that the annual report cards violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement. An arbitrator ruled in the league's favor, and the NFL sent a memo
to all 32 teams confirming the outcome.
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"The arbitrator held that the publication of Report Cards disparaging NFL clubs and individuals violates the Collective Bargaining Agreement and issued an Order prohibiting the NFLPA from publishing or publicly disclosing the results of future player Report Cards," the NFL memorandum read on Feb. 13.
Pro Football Talk's
Mike Florio saw exactly where this was headed. When the ruling came down, he predicted that banning the public release would only make the cards more valuable, not less. He argued the players would be more motivated. The media will be more determined to obtain the results, and someone was eventually destined to leak them.
That is exactly what happened, with ESPN obtaining and publishing the grades.
Whether these grades are entirely accurate or, as the NFL argued, selectively presented, is a debate worth having. But one thing is difficult to dispute: the report cards gave players a legitimate, direct channel to voice their opinions about the franchises they spend most of their professional lives inside.
And if nothing else, the F that Lumen Field's turf received on Seattle's report card lined up precisely with what Seahawks players have been saying for years.
