The Tampa Bay Buccaneers only finished 8-9 in the 2025 NFL regular season, unable to build on an impressive 2024 campaign in which they made the playoffs but were outlasted by rookie sensation Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders offense in a bizarre postseason encounter. Tampa Bay can only have themselves to blame for their 2025 failings, collapsing in the second half of the campaign while gifting the NFC South division to the rival Carolina Panthers.
Both of the Buccaneers next two battles against Carolina are going to be filled with plenty of revenge, but the biggest revenge game for the Bucs isn't even going to be this one. Baker Mayfield did used to play for Carolina, but he really was a symbol of hope for the Cleveland Browns befoer becoming the new beloved face of the franchise for the Buccaneers.
Baker Mayfield has a big game early on
FOX Sports analyst Greg Auman ranked the best revenge games of the 2026 NFL season from the perspective of players getting revenge, and, to nobody's surprise, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers meeting with the Cleveland Browns early in the season in Week 2 ranked highly. In fact, the only bigger revenge game that Auman has ahead of Mayfield's date with Shedeur Sanders and the Browns renovated passing attack is reigning Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III going to battle for the previous season's Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs against the team he won last season's ring with, the Seattle Seahawks.
It's hard to argue against Walker immediately battling the Seahawks on behalf of the Chiefs as being the top revenge game on the basis of star power and relevancy, but there will be plenty of Bucs and even Browns fans willing to argue the case for Baker Mayfield's duel against the Browns. But then there will be other Bucs fans who take the Carolina Panthers angle or even the revenge game Mayfield will have against the Atlanta Falcons and their new head coach Kevin Stefanski, whom Mayfield had an ugly falling out with while in northeast Ohio when Stefanski was the Browns Coach of the Year winner (twice).
As for the Buccaners and the Browns, there is a lot of drama and storyline, and the Browns may be more dangerous this year with a talented defense, an improved Shedeur, and two new wide receiver toys from the draft. Even so, nobody should expect anything less than an easy breezy victory for the Buccaneers against one of the worst teams in the NFL.
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