The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will not see an NFC South opponent until Week Seven in 2026, opening a schedule that sends them to Cincinnati before bringing them home for a three-game homestand. Cleveland visits Raymond James Stadium on Sept. 20, Minnesota comes in on Sept. 27 and Green Bay arrives on Oct. 4.
That early run gives Tampa Bay a rare chance to settle in at home. The three-game stretch is the start of a nine-game slate at Raymond James Stadium, and five teams that reached the playoffs in 2025 are scheduled to visit there during the season. Most of those home games will kick off at 1:00 p.m. ET, though Minnesota's Week Three visit is set for 4:05 p.m. ET.
The home-heavy opening also comes with a twist in opponents. Cleveland and Pittsburgh will be making their first appearances at Raymond James Stadium since 2018, while the Browns' quarterback situation remains unsettled with DeShaun Watson, Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel in the mix. Minnesota added Kyler Murray to compete with J.J. McCarthy, and Pittsburgh is still waiting on Aaron Rodgers while having already drafted Drew Allar in the third round.
By the time Carolina comes to Tampa on Nov. 30 for Monday Night Football, the Buccaneers will finally reach the kind of divisional game that shaped last season. The Panthers won the NFC South on a tiebreaker over Tampa Bay and Atlanta, ending the Buccaneers' four-year run as division champions. Atlanta, meanwhile, enters with Kevin Stefanski in his first season as head coach and Tua Tagovailoa signed amid uncertainty about Michael Penix.
That makes the second half of the schedule look more familiar than the first. Todd Monken, who served as Tampa Bay's offensive coordinator from 2016 to 2018, also returns to the picture in a broader sense as the sort of familiar name fans will notice on a 2026 slate built around old ties, new quarterback questions and a late push through the division.
The final stretch brings one more marker. Matthew Stafford and the Rams are set to visit Raymond James Stadium in Week Seventeen, but the kickoff time has not yet been scheduled. For the Buccaneers, the sequence is clear: a manageable opening, a long home run, and a delayed first chance to measure themselves against the NFC South.
