Two members of Team Glazer.
Joe’s learned over the years that it’s tough to poll fans on how they feel about Buccaneers ownership.
It’s not a simple process because fans often evaluate owners on various factors that have nothing to do with football on the field.
Passionate opinions about about ownership decisions on ticket prices, warm beer costs or community involvement, for example, actually affect how a lot of fans feel about players and their collective performance. And vice versa.
So asking fans to grade ownership is a lot more complex than Joe’s weekly Todd Bowles confidence polls or those grading Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht.
Longtime NFL writer Mike Jones of the TheAthletic.com took a stab at evaluating owners of every NFL team and how much they “want to win.” He crafted five tiers.
What appears to be the top tier (Ravens, Bills, Lions, Chiefs, Eagles) was labeled, “Contention mode.” The second tier is where Team Glazer landed, “Willing to do what it takes to win.”
Jones wrote: Tampa Bay remains the picture of stability in the NFC South thanks largely to the vision of general manager Jason Licht and support he receives from the Glazer family. This offseason’s efforts to retain core players such as wide receiver Chris Godwin, linebacker Lavonte David, and guard Ben Bredeson, while adding Haason Reddick to pass rush with Anthony Nelson, seemingly have the Bucs positioned for another playoff run.
Licht always talks about everything starting with blank-check-level commitment from Team Glazer.
That very much came into the spotlight when Licht said repeatedly how Team Glazer was paying whatever it took to do background work on Jameis Winston quarterbacks in the 2015 NFL Draft. Then it was chatter about cryo-chambers, adding the Glazer shed, allowing Bucco Bruce Arians to have the largest coaching staff known to the free world, and huge massive signing bonuses during the Tom Brady era to free salary cap room.
Jones often referenced the recent NFL players union survey of ownership — from votes cast by players on each roster.
Team Glazer ranked 27th in the league with a “D+ “grade from Bucs players, but Jones did not mention that in his analysis. If that in-house grade had been better, Joe suspects Team Glazer would have landed in the elite class of this ownership breakdown.
Joe would give Bucs ownership an excellent grade for the current state of the team and its role in all phases. Team Glazer has improved over the years and seems to be maximizing its 30 years of NFL wisdom.
(Management note: It’s March, so it’s too early for Joe to moan about training camp practices closed to the general public).
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