This year’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers team may prove to be the hardest working group of players Coach Jon Gruden has ever been associated with.

The Bucs left Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex Thursday a significantly better team than when they arrived. For nearly three weeks, the team ran through a series of practices filled with drills in an effort to improve on last season’s record of 11-5.

“We ran a lot of plays, more than any training camp I’ve ever been in,” Gruden said. “I can’t measure growth; you can’t see it until the games start. We do like the progress that we made. We’ve got some new coaches here that got a chance to get acclimated quickly and did a good job. We’re together and we’re in shape and I do see strides being made.”

The Bucs escaped camp with some minor bumps and bruises, but no injuries too serious. They’ll have two more preseason games – against Miami Saturday night and at Jacksonville on Aug. 26 – before the first round of cuts are due on Aug. 29.

“We had a very good training camp,” Gruden said. “We’re ready to go with the next step in the season.”

That next step includes today’s walk-through practice at MacDill Air Force Base and then the team’s first practice in their new training facility on Monday.