The Bucs’ 2025 schedule is now finalized and released, which means the path toward a fifth straight NFC South title and a sixth consecutive playoff appearance is set before Todd Bowles and his team.

Tampa Bay’s opponents have been known since the end of the 2024 regular season, but now we know all the details of the schedule for the franchise’s 50th season. The slate features eight home games, nine road games and a Week 9 bye.

Let’s dive in and look at the good, the bad and the ugly with the Bucs’ 2025 schedule.

The Good: Bucs’ 2025 Slate Isn’t Stacked With 2024 Playoff Teams

Bucs FS Antoine Winfield Jr. – Photo by: USA Today

We’ve known since the end of last season that the Bucs’ 2025 schedule wouldn’t feature a whole lot of teams that made the playoffs in 2024. There are only five teams on Tampa Bay’s 17-game schedule that made the postseason a year ago. The fact that four of those — games against the Rams, Bills, Lions and Texans — come on the road? That isn’t ideal. The one home game against a playoff team from last year also happens to be against the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles, whom the Bucs have beaten in Tampa Bay in each of the last two seasons.

But still, based on projected win totals, the Bucs have the 10th-easiest schedule of the 32 teams this year. In terms of last year’s collective win percentage, Tampa Bay’s opponents for 2025 combined for a .481 mark, which is around the middle of the pack if you’re looking at strength of schedule through that metric.

The five games against those playoff teams from last year are also decently spaced out, with one in Week 2 (Houston), another in Week 4 (Philadelphia) and the third in Week 7 (Detroit). The only time the Bucs will face back-to-back playoff teams is when they play at Buffalo and at the Los Angeles Rams in Weeks 11 and 12.

Of the remaining 12 games on the 2025 schedule — those against teams that didn’t make the playoffs last year — 11 come against teams with win totals set (by Hard Rock Bet) at 8.5 or fewer. And that leads into another point under the “good” column, which is the finishing stretch of the season. After that Week 12 Sunday night game against the Rams, the Bucs finish with four home games over the final six weeks.

Not only that, but those games come against the Cardinals, Saints, Falcons, Panthers (twice) and Dolphins. The Falcons and perhaps the Dolphins are the only two of those teams that enter 2025 with a reputation as potential playoff teams. And while Carolina may very well be clicking better later in the season, those matchups are still likely to favor Todd Bowles and his team.

And finally, file this under good (or NICEY):

The Bad: Bucs Will Need Their Best To Overcome Primetime Issues

Lions HC Dan Campbell and Bucs HC Todd Bowles- Photo by: USA Today

Given how bad the Bucs have been in primetime over the last couple of years, you would’ve liked to see them get some favorable matchups — and locations — on their 2025 schedule. Instead, they got the opposite of that.

Of course, for the national audience, there’s unlikely to be much interest in the Bucs matching up with the likes of the Jets or Cardinals in primetime. Tampa Bay’s standalone games were always likely to be against some of the other top teams in the NFL. But the fact that three of the four primetime games on the schedule are against playoff teams from last year — and all of them are away from Raymond James Stadium — is a tough draw.

The Bucs have the Texans on Monday Night Football in Week 2, the Lions on Monday Night Football in Week 7 and the Rams on Sunday Night Football in Week 12. All of those games are on the road. The lone primetime game in Tampa Bay comes in Week 15 when the Falcons come to town.

So, if the Bucs are going to turn things around after an 0-5 record in primetime last year, including the home playoff loss to the Commanders, and a six-game primetime losing streak in the regular season that dates back to 2023, they’re going to need their best.

On a different note under the “bad” column, what’s up with the Falcons getting FIVE primetime games? That’s one more than the four-time defending NFC South champion Bucs. That feels undeserved, no? The league is clearly betting on a big leap from Atlanta that leads to the Dirty Birds taking over atop the division, huh?

Although from a Bucs perspective, you wouldn’t be crazy to say you’d actually prefer fewer primetime games.

The Ugly: Avoiding Another Midseason Slump Won’t Be Easy

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield and 49ers QB Brock Purdy – Photo by: USA Today

As impressive as it’s been for Todd Bowles to pull his team together and overcome midseason slumps in both the 2023 and 2024 seasons, the fact that such rallies have been necessary to remain on top of the NFC South year after year is a problem.

The Bucs went 1-5 from Weeks 5-10 in 2024 and needed a 6-1 record down the stretch to win the division.

That was after a 2023 season that saw them go 1-6 from Weeks 6-12 that led to the need for a 5-1 finish to keep the division crown.

Even in 2022, the final year of the Tom Brady era, the Bucs went 2-4 from Weeks 6-12 and needed crucial wins on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day to win the division with only eight wins.

So, can Bowles and the Bucs avoid that midseason slump in 2025? You’d like to think so, but the schedule makers didn’t do them many favors.

To be fair, 2025 doesn’t feature the kind of gauntlet that 2024 did with games against the Ravens, Falcons, Chiefs and 49ers in a four-week span leading into a Week 11 bye. But still, Tampa Bay has a tough run from Week 4 all the way through Week 12 that screams midseason struggles. Bowles, Baker Mayfield and the rest of the group can’t let that happen.

Bucs WR Mike Evans – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

It starts at home in Week 4 with the defending champion Eagles in town. Then comes an always-tough trip to Seattle before returning home to face a good 49ers team that has given the Bucs fits in the Bowles era. A Monday night game at Detroit comes next, and while New Orleans isn’t expected to be all that great, going into the Superdome the next week on shortened rest isn’t ideal. Remember, the Saints and the Bucs hate each other. New Orleans will be up for those games.

After the bye, the Bucs host an upstart Patriots team led by a good young quarterback in Drake Maye. That promises to be a challenge, and then comes the toughest back-to-back of the season with trips to Buffalo and Los Angeles in Weeks 11 and 12.

So, over that eight-game stretch, 4-4 might feel like a job well done. But given their recent midseason woes, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to see that stretch turn into quite the nightmare. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen – again.