The good and the bad of the Buccaneers schedule release

The NFL had its official schedule release this past Thursday, and teams across the league like the Buccaneers are anxious to see what the 2022 season has in store for them.

Each teams’ opponents have been known for months now, ever since the end of the regular season last year, but the order of the games is also extremely important. Look no further than this prank by the Seattle Seahawks for proof of how seriously players take the scheduling of these upcoming games.

So, with the Buccaneers’ schedule finally completely released, we can dig into the highs and lows of the season’s landscape. Lets do it.

Good: Late Bye Week

The bye week is one of the more important pieces of information that comes out of the schedule release for each team. The most desirable bye week for playoff hopefuls (which, this early in the year, is almost everyone) is a late week off. That gives teams looking to make a playoff push an extra week to recharge down the home stretch.

Bucs fans are familiar with the impact a late bye can have, in 2020 the Bucs reversed their fortunes after their week off, finishing the year 4-0 to wind up at a respectable 11-5 record and finally unlocking the elite potential the team had flashed earlier. Prior to the bye, Tampa Bay had lost 3 of their last 4 games, so clearly the week to recuperate was sorely needed.

This year, the Bucs slot in with a Week 11 bye, a good position to be in. It allows the team to prepare for a tough series of games following, a five game stretch made up of three playoff teams from last year, the newly Deshaun Watson-led Browns, and the Saints.

The Buccaneers are going to have to play some of their best football down the stretch in order to put themselves in a solid position for the postseason, and this late bye week helps with that.