While the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' season came to an anticlimactic finish in Week 18, fans were well-prepared thanks to the weeks of pre-grieving that took place for most of the last month of the season.
After failing to win two of their last five games, the Bucs will miss the playoffs for the first time this decade. It's a feat that's as impressive as it is depressing, and sets the stage for what we all hope is a bounce back season next year from a prideful team that got brutally humbled.
All eyes are on the future now, and the journey back from the wreckage of this season starts with learning who the Bucs will play next season.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers future opponents in 2026
While we have to wait until May for the specifics, we at least know for sure who will be on the Buccaneers' schedule when it comes out.
Home Games | Road Games |
|---|---|
Green Bay Packers | Chicago Bears |
Minnesota Vikings | Detroit Lions |
Cleveland Browns | Baltimore Ravens |
Pittsburgh Steelers | Cincinnati Bengals |
Los Angeles Chargers | Dallas Cowboys |
San Francisco 49ers | New Orleans Saints |
New Orleans Saints | Atlanta Falcons |
Atlanta Falcons | Carolina Panthers |
Carolina Panthers |
It's hard to look forward when things were recently so bad, but there's no other place to go. The historic collapse needs to be dissected and changes need to be made, but the Bucs have nobody to blame for how things went than themselves.
All the Bucs needed to do was win two of their last five games to keep the streak of NFC South titles alive, but that proved to be too difficult. In the end, Tampa Bay was the master of its own demise; not a single game was won in December and a Week 18 win over the Panthers was nullified thanks to a tiebreaker technicality.
Even if the Saints had beaten the Falcons, Tampa Bay would have limped into the playoffs with a 8-9 record -- something nobody would have felt great about.
Now the Bucs look ahead to a schedule that won't get any easier in 2026. As second place finishers in the NFC South, Tampa Bay will still get teams like the 49ers and Cowboys, as well as revamped Bengals, and Browns teams.
Lest we forget, the Steelers, Ravens, and Chargers are all playoff-worthy teams while the NFC South is surely going to get better as well.
The good news is the Bucs' path forward is a clear one. Everyone knows what needs to change, and so long as the right decisions are made this offseason, there's no reason the Bucs can't be one of the teams that bounce back in a big way in 2026.