After an eventful offseason for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, fans finally got to see the team return to the field on Saturday night.
Unfortunately the preseason opener against the Tennessee Titans got off to an ugly start, through no fault of the players in the game. Bad weather rolled through the Tampa area and dumped rain on both the city and the stadium sitting above it, which caused an issue that not many were probably thinking about.
The Bucs just installed new grass at Raymond James Stadium, and the mix of bad weather and a fresh playing surface turned out to be a gnarly one.
Raymond James Stadium field criticized ahead of preseason opener vs. Titans
Titans beat writer Turron Davenport shared an image of the field on social media, rightly criticising it for not being entirely up to par ahead of Saturday's game. To be fair, rain and overall crumby conditions didn't help the matter, but it didn't take a keen eye to observe how rough the grass looked down on the field.
The grass here at Raymond James Stadium was just laid down yesterday. You can see seams in the field where it hasn't mended together. Between that and the rain, this is definitely not a great surface to play on. pic.twitter.com/Txg3bJ3yAe
— TURRON DAVENPORT (@TDavenport_NFL) August 9, 2025
Oof, that's not what you're looking for.
New grass being put in right before torrential downpours isn't a great combination, but it's also nothing new for folks in Tampa. It's unfortunate that bad weather played a factor in the field not settling the way anyone intended, but heavy rain and preseason games are a time-honored tradition for the Buccaneers.
Every August, we have to deal with not only storms rolling through the area around game time, but also the potential for weather delays. It's not uncommon for lightning strikes to cause a distruption during the preseason and there's even been instances where that sort of thing has impacted regular season games in September.
Hopefully that's not something we have to deal with, but another thing that causes some concern is whether bad field sodding could lead to injuries for players. Tampa Bay rested all of its starters, even if guys like Baker Mayfield dressed and warmed up before the game, which at least alleviates some anxiety about the field causing long-term issues for the team.
Players still play on the surface, though, and the group includes guys trying to play hard to earn a roster spot and make the team. That's enough of an uphill battle -- for both Buccaneers and Titans players -- so having to deal with cruddy field surface is an unneccssary and unfortunate complication.
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