After a long offseason, one filled with a ton of change, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are finally ready to kick off a new season.
It’s a season they’re already being counted out of.
Ever since Tom Brady retired back in February, the Bucs have been easy targets for pundits to take shots at. From Peter King dubbing Tampa Bay the second-worst team in the league to everyone assuming this season will feature a tank job, the way the Bucs have been talked about would lead someone to believe their inclusion in the NFL is some generous act of charity.
All of the talk about how the Bucs don’t stand a chance has created a real chip on everyone’s shoulder, and it’s created a sense of wanting to prove the doubters wrong. Baker Mayfield was signed back in March to take over as the next starting quraterback, something that has been miscontstrued as him replacing Tom Brady.
That sort of narrative hijacking is what might fuel the Bucs to become a surprise team this year. While Brady is gone, there is still immense talent across the roster and a ton of it is just a handful of years removed from winning a Super Bowl. Mike Evans is going to be playing for a new contract, as is Devin White, and guys like Tristan Wirfs, Antoine Winfield Jr., and Vita Vea are young superstar pieces of the future core. There’s also top tier players like Jamel Dean, Lavonte David, and Chris Godwin to go along with rising stars like Sean Tucker and Trey Palmer.
There’s a chance everything goes wrong for the Bucs this season and the doubters are proven right. However, there are more ways the season goes well than most are willing to admit. The journey to prove everyone wrong begins on Sunday up in Minnesota against an old NFC Central foe.
What channel is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game on tonight? (August 11th)
Usually the Bucs are on FOX, but they’ll be kicking their season off CBS instead. It’s a little weird to see two NFC teams on a different network, but the new television rights deals allowed for some more flexibility over where games are aired.
In the past it was exclusively NFC games on FOX and AFC games on CBS, with cross-conference games getting divided up evenly. That’s no longer the case, and it creates interesting situations like the Bucs-Vikings being a CBS game — weird but nothing major.
As far as when to catch the game, things will kickoff at 1pm ET with Andrew Catalon and Tiki Barber on the call for CBS. There will be a familiar face in the booth as well, with former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan joining the announcing team and making his debut.
Here’s everything you need to know to catch the Bucs Week 1 showdown against the Vikings:
- Date: Sunday, September 10th
- Start Time: 1:00 pm ET
- Location: U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN
- TV Channel: CBS
- Announcers: Andrew Catalon, Tiki Barber, Matt Ryan
- Live Stream: NFL Sunday Ticket