The Buccaneers already handled their business on Thursday night, knocking off the Dallas Cowboys for their first win of the season. That leaves Sunday as a score-watching day for Tampa Bay fans, with plenty on the line even if the Bucs aren’t taking the field.
The big-picture math is simple: Tampa Bay is still hanging around the NFC South race, but it’s also sitting near the bottom of the NFL standings. That makes Week 5 a strange kind of balancing act. Bucs fans need results that help both right now and down the road, whether that means staying in the division hunt or improving draft position if things tilt that way later on.
In Washington, Tampa Bay fans should be pulling for the Commanders over the Giants. A Giants win would drop Washington to 1-4 and tie them with the Buccaneers, so the cleaner outcome for Tampa Bay is a Commanders victory.
The same logic applies in New York, where the Jets should be the team Bucs fans want to see beat the Browns. If Tampa Bay ends up living in the draft-order neighborhood, Cleveland looks like the kind of team that could crowd that space, so a Jets win works best.
Indianapolis getting past Pittsburgh also makes sense from Tampa Bay’s point of view. The Colts and Steelers both enter at 2-2, but Indianapolis feels like the bigger threat to matter in the draft-order picture. There’s also the added bonus of keeping Pittsburgh down a notch before it comes to Tampa in Week 6.
At 0-4, the Texans and Titans are both staring at the kind of season that can land near the top of the draft. But if the Bucs are picking one team to eventually steady itself, it’s Houston. Tennessee gets the nod here, with Tampa Bay rooting for the Titans to break through.
Some games are even easier to sort out. The Vikings against the Saints?
That’s a straightforward Minnesota pull for Tampa Bay fans. SKOL!
There’s a similar lean in Cincinnati’s trip to Miami. If the Bucs are thinking about the draft, the Dolphins look like the team they want winning that one. Miami is one of the few teams worse than Tennessee, and the upside of a Dolphins win is pushing them away from the first pick discussion.
The Bears and Packers create another useful rooting decision. Chicago is already 3-1 and has looked like one of the league’s best teams, even with Caleb Williams sidelined by injury.
Green Bay has been struggling, but Micah Parsons is set to return soon, which could alter that team’s path. For Tampa Bay, the Packers are the better choice, simply because they have more room to become a problem later.
Tampa Bay also benefits from the Chargers continuing their slide. Denver visiting Los Angeles gives the Buccaneers a chance to root for one of the league’s last winless teams to finally get in the column. And there’s an added layer there, too: rooting against Sean Payton never hurts.
Arizona over Detroit would help as well. The Cardinals sit at 1-3 and face a rough stretch ahead, which makes them a candidate for a useful draft slot. A Cardinals win keeps them in the mix and moves them past Tampa Bay in the win column.
The 49ers-Seahawks game doesn’t really touch Tampa Bay either way, since both teams look headed for double-digit wins and a deep playoff run. If Bucs fans want a side, though, the nod goes to San Francisco.
And in the night game, Tampa Bay has clear reasons to lean toward Baltimore over Atlanta. A Falcons loss would help in the NFC South standings, and watching Atlanta’s momentum get checked by the Ravens without Lamar Jackson would be a bonus. With Tyler Huntley leading Baltimore, that’s the upset Bucs fans should be pulling for.
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It is not the flashiest issue on the board, but it is the kind of decision that can matter when a team is trying to keep its operation steady year after year. McLaughlins value is now part of the broader conversation around how Tampa Bay allocates money, and this episode gives fans a closer look at the thinking behind that process while leaving plenty of room for debate about where the kicking situation is headed next. [Read more 🡒]
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Against the Cowboys, that young group again showed why the Bucs feel better about this side of the ball than they did a year ago. Tampa Bay kept Dallas offense in check and leaned on the kind of coverage and tackling that can travel, with Trotter and Scott right in the middle of it. For Bowles, its turning into the kind of early-season foundation defenses usually need, even if there is still more for these rookies to prove. [Read more 🡒]
Buccaneers Have A Real Emeka Egbuka Problem After This Start
Emeka Egbuka arrived in Tampa Bay with the kind of early-career momentum that usually buys a receiver some room to work through a rough patch. Instead, the first five weeks of his second NFL season have put a spotlight on how sharply his production has fallen from the standard he set as a rookie, and it has left him looking like the least efficient pass catcher on a Buccaneers offense that has needed more dependable answers from him.
There have still been a few encouraging snaps and plays along the way, but the broader picture is hard to miss when compared with what he did a year ago. Egbuka has not matched the same burst, the same impact on chunk gains, or the same consistency that made him such a promising piece of Tampa Bays receiver group, and until that changes, his role in the offense will keep drawing attention for all the wrong reasons. [Read more 🡒]