Bucs co-chairmen and owners Joel, left, and Bryan Glazer walk out to the field ahead of a Jan. 3 game against the Panthers at Raymond James Stadium.
Bucs co-chairmen and owners Joel, left, and Bryan Glazer walk out to the field ahead of a Jan. 3 game against the Panthers at Raymond James Stadium.
Despite taking past grievances from players to heart and making improvements to their facilities, the Glazer family who owns the Bucs received a D on the NFL Players Association report cards leaked Thursday, the third-worst grade in the league.
That ranked only ahead of the Steelers (D-minus) and Cardinals (F) among the 32 teams and was a notch south of the D-plus the Bucs owners received in 2025.
This year, 1,750 players participated in the survey, which was obtained by ESPN and conducted from Nov. 2 to Dec. 11.
Grades and opinions are sought from players on various working conditions from quality of the facilities to travel arrangements to training staffs to treatment of family members on game days.
The NFLPA did not make the results public after an arbitrator ruled in favor of NFL owners, who successfully argued the survey violated the collective bargaining agreement by “disparaging the NFL clubs and individuals.” The NFLPA said it would continue to collect the responses even if it could not publish the results.
The Bucs gave relatively high marks to their coaching and training staffs but hammered ownership and their home game experience.
Tampa Bay players gave low marks for things such as the home game field experience (F-minus), team travel (F), food/dining area (D-plus), locker room (D-minus), treatment of families (D) .
Bucs fans cheer after their team gains a first down against the Jets last September. Despite being the home opener, several seats are occupied by opposing fans. [ JEFFEREE WOO | Times ]
Strength coaches (A) and the weight room (A-minus) received the highest marks, which may say more about players not wanting to draw any ill-will from the people who make them lift so many weights. Overall, the training room (C) and training staff (C-plus) were graded average.
Even though the Bucs fired at least five coaches while two others retired, the players had pretty favorable opinions of head coach Todd Bowles and his staff.
Bowles earned a B while the position coaches (B) also were above average.
What can’t be overlooked is that the players surveyed had a much better opinion of former offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard than Bowles did.
Grizzard received a B and Bowles’ responsibilities as defensive coordinator earned him an A-minus. That certainly didn’t match the play on the field as the Bucs began the season 6-2 before losing seven of their last nine games to finish 8-9 and miss the playoffs.
Particularly surprising was fired special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey receiving a C-plus despite seeing blocked punts and field-goal attempts as well as poor coverage on punts and kickoffs.
McGaughey was among the coaches fired by Bowles after only one season.
Bucs running back Sean Tucker (44) is congratulated by offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard, right, after Tucker scores a touchdown against the Saints on Dec. 7. [ JEFFEREE WOO | Times ]
A year ago, the Glazer family took some of the criticism to heart, installing air filters in the locker room at the AdventHealth Training Center.
The idea behind the surveys is to hold teams accountable in hopes that they will use the feedback to improve areas that players note as weaknesses.
Bucs players likely aren’t happy with the large number of opposing fans who attend home games at Raymond James Stadium, and some playing conditions have been less than ideal, particularly when USF plays on the same surface the day before.
The Dolphins ranked first overall while the Vikings and Commanders were second and third, respectively.
The Bucs had no comment on the survey.
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