Nobody thought the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would implode last season until they went ahead and threw the whole season away with embarrassing prime time losses and uncharacteristic sloppiness on the offensive side of the ball, ceding the division to the rival Carolina Panthers when it looked like the NFC South was a total guarantee.
The Bucs went from being Super Bowl contenders with quarterback Baker Mayfield as a leading MVP candidate to getting their behinds handed to them by Kirk Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday Night Football. Talk about a fall from grace.
Mike Evans and Lavonte David may be gone, but the Buccaneers will like their chances of getting back to the postseason and making some January noise after loading up in the draft with X-Factors like Rueben Bain Jr. and Ted Hurst.
The Bucs have another division-heavy slate down the stretch
But in order to get back to the playoffs, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2026 NFL schedule has a gauntlet in the second half of the season that will give them deja vu of their collapse last season. If the Bucs can get through this wild ride of opponents after their Week 10 bye, though, then they will truly be battle tested and ready for a Super Bowl run.
In Week 11, the Bucs will have to face a former Super Bowl contender in the Detroit Lions. Then their biggest foes, the Carolina Panthers, beckon before the Bucs have to start December against their former offensive coordinator target Mike McDaniel and his franchise quarterback Justin Herbert.
It doesn't get any easier for Tampa Bay in the winter. The Buccaneers will travel to face Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens before closing the final four weeks of the regular season with three NFC South rivalry matchups against the Atlanta Falcons on the road and the New Orleans Saints home and away. And yes, that is very, very reminiscent of the division heavy schedule the Buccaneers faced - and failed - at the end of the 2025 NFL regular season.
As if that were not enough, the Buccaneers will battle the Los Angeles Rams, who squared off against the Seattle Seahawks in the "real" Super Bowl of an NFC Championship Game last season, once more down the stretch. The Bucs will battle Matthew Stafford for revenge from last season's blowout loss on Sunday Night Football in Week 17 in what could be another SNF classic against Baker Mayfield's former employers.
Yeah, the Buccaneers are going to have to exorcise some serious demons in the second half of the 2026 season.
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