Buffalo Rumblings
Buffalo Bills players are frustrated with the organization on several key NFLPA report card items.
On the field, the Buffalo Bills have been a top-notch organization recently. Behind the scenes, it’s not so rosy according to an anonymous survey of the players on the current roster by the NFLPA. The NFLPA gave the survey to every team, so there is feedback and rankings available.
The Bills finished 23rd in the the organizational report card rankings released by the NFLPA in late February. The biggest concern among the players is that issues raised a year ago or more still have not been addressed, according to the respondents.
The most pressing issue was with the travel arrangements for the Bills, where the Bills finished dead last with an F- grade. They think the travel schedule is inefficient, coming in 32nd in the NFLPA voting.
Obviously we’re also talking about fitting large men into seats on a plane, but only 35% of the team felt they had a comfortable amount of space, which ranks dead last in the NFL. Compounding matters, the coaching staff does not seem to be helping:
Last year the players were frustrated that they are made to sit in the smaller seats during travel while the coaches and auxiliary staff sit in first class. The players’ dissatisfaction with this issue has grown, with 65% of players saying they have insufficient space or discomfort when traveling to away games, up from 55% last year.
Unsurprisingly based on that language, the head coach also received a negative rating. Sean McDermott was the 27th-ranked head coach in the NFL. Only 88% of the team thinks McDermott is efficient with their time (24th) and he came in 27th on being receptive to locker room feedback.
The Bills were in the top 10 in just two rankings: Treatment of families (ninth) and weight room (seventh).
The Bills completed a new weight room and training facility in 2019.
