By; J.T. Olsen – Bucs Report– Special to Sports Talk Florida
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers now know what their 2024 schedule will look like. On Wednesday, teams across the league released their schedules and now there is a clear picture of what the road to the playoffs looks like. And just like with any map, it comes with plenty of mountains to climb.
There are a lot of big games on this Bucs schedule. As a first place team Tampa Bay has to play all of last year’s first place teams in the NFC. They also drew the likes of Kansas City, Philadelphia and Baltimore this year.
With plenty of options to choose from, it was difficult to narrow down the Buccaneers five biggest games this year. However, when you look at who they play, when they play them and the potential playoff implications they could have, I was able to rank the top five.
Here are the Buccaneers five biggest games of the 2024 season.
5) at Atlanta
Make no mistake, the Falcons are a legitimate threat to take the NFC South crown away from the Bucs. They made a run at the division last year and that was with one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL in Desmond Ridder. Now they have added arguably a top ten quarterback in Kirk Cousin to take them to the postseason.
This will be a week five matchup on Thursday night football. The short turnaround is always hard on teams, but it’s that much harder when you have to go on the road like the Bucs will for this one. This adds some additional adversity to a critical divisional game.
4) at Kansas CIty
The Buccaneers don’t traditionally get the spotlight. So this game on Sunday Night Football against a team with the greatest player on the planet and the defending Super Bowl champions holds some weight. This is a chance to measure themselves against the best team in the league and also to let the world know that this Bucs team is for real.
We all have lasting memories of the last time these two teams met on the big stage. However, the two teams are very different from when the Bucs beat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl a few years ago. If the Buccaneers want to reach their ultimate goal, they have to
3) vs San Francisco
Recent history tells us that the road to the SUper Bowl in the NFC goes through San Francisco. The defending NFC Champions have proven over and over that they are one of the premiere franchises in the NFL right now. The Bucs have experienced this first hand with several convincing defeats over the last few years.
While the 49ers are undoubtedly still a very good team, I personally believe they have taken a step back in the trenches. That means that this won’t just be a prove it game for the Bucs, it will be a critical game in terms of playoff seeding. This game could be the difference between a home or road playoff game.
2) at Detroit
To be the best then you need to beat the best. For my money, the Lions are the best team in the NFC. They are young, talented, well coached and the team that ended the Buccaneers season last year.
Having this game in week two, on the road sets the tone for the whole year. It says that this is the team we have to beat and this is the environment that we will likely have to beat them in. For the young players in particular, this is the standard that has to be set for the season.
1) vs Atlanta
If the week five game in Atlanta was big, then the week eight game at home is huge. The Falcons are a good team with a fairly easy schedule down the stretch. Giving them a loss at any opportunity is critical for the Bucs chances at winning the division.
There are two possibilities with this game. One is that the Buccaneers lose in week five and are trying to salvage a critical series split in this game. The other possibility is that the Bucs win in week five and they are trying to bury the Falcons as much as humanly possible. Either way, this game is huge for the Bucs For more from J.T. click here, then make sure to follow him on Twitter.
