Easiest stretch of the schedule for the Buccaneers in 2020

Moving on to the away games, the Buccaneers are playing some spunky teams, but none that are fully defined.

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The Broncos went deep during the draft to supply Drew Lock with all of the weapons that he could need, but Denver has such a small body of work to view from Lock that nothing about 2020 is guaranteed.

If Lock can keep up the level of play that he displayed at the end of 2019, this matchup could be difficult for the Buccaneers, but until more has been shown from the new Denver quarterback, Tampa Bay still has the advantage.

Another team that has question marks at the quarterback position is the week five opponent for the Bucs, Chicago. The Bears are stuck in quarterback limbo, and regardless of who the starter is, the Bears aren’t much of a threat.

This game may be away for the Buccaneers, but Nick Foles and Mitchell Trubisky aren’t consistent enough to maintain the home-field advantage for the Bears.

The Giants are a sneaky team assuming Saquon Barkley is healthy, but Tampa Bay’s run defense will likely remain just as strong in 2020. If the Bucs can keep Barkley shut down and prevent Daniel Jones from having another career game, Tampa Bay should come out of that game with another win.

The most trying game from this stretch will be against the Las Vegas Raiders. That’s still going to take some time to get used to saying. The Raiders have a better-than-average quarterback in Derek Carr, an improving defense, and the weapons to compete in 2020.

If making the playoffs is the goal for the Bucs, winning all of these games is imperative. They may be away matchups, but the overall level of competition during the first half of the season is less than Tampa Bay will face is the latter half.

Don’t expect these wins to be a foregone conclusion, but if the Buccaneers can take care of business here, they could go into week eight at 6-2 or 7-1 realistically.