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2025 Game Preview: 49ers-Buccaneers, Week 6

For the third week in a row, the Buccaneers will be locked in a battle of first-place NFC teams, this time against a visiting 49ers squad led by Christian McCaffrey on offense and Fred Warner on defense

Oct 09, 2025 at 03:45 PM

Scott Smith

Senior Writer/Editor

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in their "must-see TV" stretch of the 2025 seasons, and the next highly-anticipated episode drops on Sunday when the San Francisco 49ers visit for a showdown of two of the seven teams tied for the NFL's best record, the only one in the NFL in Week Six.

In Week Four, the Buccaneers welcomed the Philadelphia Eagles to Tampa for the only game on the NFL's schedule between two undefeated teams. The defending champions unfortunately left town with a 31-26 victory, but that still left the Bucs at 3-1 and ready to fly across the country to take on another 3-1 first-place team. That trip to Seattle was more successful, as the Bucs walked off a 38-35 shootout win to improve to 4-1. The symmetry continues in Week Six, as the 49ers also bring a 4-1 record to town, putting NFC supremacy on the line. To raise the stakes, both the Buccaneers and 49ers have seen all of their games decided by one score or less, and neither team has outscored its combined opponents by more than eight points.

That kind of weekly drama and stakes in the standings deserves a wide audience, and the NFL obliged by flexing the game from its original 1:00 p.m. kickoff to 4:25. The Buccaneers have a chance to go to 5-1 for just the sixth time in franchise history, but the challenge is at least as steep as the past two weeks, if not more so. The 49ers boast the NFL's top passing attack, a perennial Offensive Player of the Year candidate in running back Christian McCaffrey and a Fred Warner-led defense that is allowing the sixth fewest points in the league.

McCaffrey is the biggest concern for the Buccaneers' defense, particularly with Brandon Aiyuk still on the PUP list and tight end George Kittle on injured reserve. After an injury-marred 2024 season, McCaffrey is back to being the engine of San Francisco's offense, leading the team in both rushing and receiving, all adding up to an NFL-leading 669 yards from scrimmage. He rarely comes off the field for San Francisco and is almost certain to get a high number of touches. The Bucs' defense wants to limit what McCaffrey does after he gets the ball, especially in the passing game.

"He is going to get plays, but the biggest thing is making sure he does not get any 'YAC' yards," said safety Tykee Smith, the Buccaneers' leader in both tackles (39) and passes defensed (six). "So, making the tackle, not missing tackles and playing gap-sound football."

The 49ers do have a question mark at quarterback, as a toe injury for Brock Purdy has led to Mac Jones starting three of the last four games, and it's uncertain if Purdy will return for this Sunday's game in Tampa. Purdy has a history of strong performances against the Buccaneers but Jones, a former first-round pick in New England, is also now thriving in Kyle Shanahan's QB-friendly system.

"I think both quarterbacks are really good," said Smith. "I think the system they run is really [good]. I do not think there is too much of a difference, but the team is definitely on a roll with both quarterbacks, so that is really special."

Whoever is under center, the 49ers have been racking up nearly 300 passing yards per game and are top five in sack percentage allowed, first downs and third-down success rate. Shanahan is considered one of the NFL's preeminent play designers, which allows San Francisco to thrive even when multiple key players are injured.

"He's a great coach," said Shanahan's Tampa Bay counterpart, Todd Bowles. "He studies himself very well. They change all the time. They do a great job of self-scouting, understanding what you're looking at, and changing those things up. And they have great players that can execute."

Meanwhile, four-time Pro Bowler Warner leads the 49ers' defense with 50 tackles and has also accumulated three passes defensed, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. Long considered the NFL's best coverage linebacker, Warner routinely locks down the middle of the field, and he leads a unit that has allowed the NFL's fifth-lowest third-down conversion percentage. San Francisco has clearly benefited from the return of Robert Saleh, back as the defensive coordinator after previously holding the same position for the team from 2017-20.

"They play fast, number one, very fast," said Bowles of the 49ers' defenders. "They're very good up front with games and stunts and they play powerful. The linebackers are not only big, but they can run, they can cover, and they can knock you down. The secondary plays very smart and they play very disciplined football. With Robert going back there, he's done a heck of a job with that group."

Given the dramatic nature of the games played so far by both the Buccaneers and 49ers, there's a good chance Sunday's showdown will go down to the wire as well. For quarterback Baker Mayfield, the home team's chances will be greatly improved if they can come out of the gates quickly, something they didn't accomplish in the loss to Philadelphia but did last Sunday in Seattle.

"We talked about starting fast, prior to the Eagles game we did not, we over-emphasized that and guys did that," said Mayfield. "Early on, we did not get the touchdowns like we wanted, did not end in seven [points], but guys mentally were locked in and that was really the point of emphasis. For me, I always have a lot more fun when we do what we talk about."

GAME AND BROADCAST DETAILS

San Francisco 49ers (3-1) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-1)

Sunday, October 12, 4:25 p.m. ET

Raymond James Stadium (capacity: 65,844)

Tampa, Florida

Television: CBS

TV Broadcast Team: Jim Nantz (play-by-play), Tony Romo (analyst), Tracy Wolfson (reporter)

Radio: 98Rock (WXTB, 97.9 FM), Flagship Station

Radio Broadcast Team: Gene Deckerhoff (play-by-play), Dave Moore (analyst), T.J. Rives (reporter)

Spanish Radio: 96.1 Caliente

Spanish Radio Broadcast Team: Carlos Bohorquez (play-by-play), Martin Gramática (analyst), Santiago Gramática (reporter)

GAMEDAY INFORMATION

Coming to the game or enjoying pregame festivities? Check out our Buccaneers Gameday Pagefor everything you need to know about getting ready for the game, Tailgate Packages, Bucs Beach and more!

TICKETING INFORMATION

The 2024 season is underway and there are a limited number of Single Game Tickets on sale now! Visit Buccaneers.com to purchase tickets.

ALL-TIME HEAD-TO-HEAD SERIES

The Buccaneers and 49ers have played each other 28 times, including the postseason, but that history divides neatly into two very different series right near the middle.

San Francisco leads the overall regular-season series by an overwhelming margin, 21-6, but as much as the '97 season is the dividing line between a long-downtrodden team and a successful franchise in Tampa, it also marks the point at which this head-to-head matchup became competitive. The Buccaneers and 49ers had met 13 times between 1977 and 1994 and San Francisco had won 12 of them, often by wide margins. The last four San Francisco wins prior to 1997 were by a combined score of 138-58.

Then the Buccaneers shocked the league by beating Steve Young, Jerry Rice and the 49ers (who would go all the way to the NFC Championship Game that season), 13-6, in Week One of 1997. That was the first of five straight wins to start the '97 season for Tampa Bay as they wound up ending a 15-year playoff drought. Including that win, the Bucs have forged a 6-8 record in the series since 1997 if one includes Tampa Bay's 31-6 drubbing of the 49ers in the Divisional Round of the 2002 playoffs.

However, San Francisco has taken control of the series again recently, winning each of the last four meetings between the two teams, beginning with a 31-17 decision at Raymond James Stadium in 2019 that featured three interceptions by the 49ers defense. The last of those picks allowed the visitors to pull away at the end, as the Buccaneers had closed to within 20-17 in the fourth quarter before a Robbie Gould field goal and Ahkello Witherspoon's 25-yard pick-six off Jameis Winston. The Bucs and 49ers had a rematch in San Francisco in 2022 but that one went even more poorly for Tampa Bay, as soon-to-be fan favorite Brock Purdy was a revelation in his first start, completing 16 of 21 passes for 185 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Running back Christian McCaffrey scored once on the ground and once through the air in a 35-7 blowout.

The Buccaneers went back to San Francisco again in 2023, and while the game was somewhat more competitive than the 2022 contest, it was a still a 27-14 win for the home team in the end. Purdy threw three touchdown passes, including a 76-yarder to Brandon Aiyuk, and was not intercepted. Most recently, the 49ers came to Tampa in Week 10 of last season and slipped away with a 23-20 win on a last-second field goal by Jake Moody, which came just 46 seconds after Chase McLaughlin had tied it up with his 26-yard shot. That final Bucs drive was famously kept alive when Baker Mayfield famously stiff-armed Nick Bosa long enough to get off an incredible fourth-and-seven completion to Rachaad White.

Tampa Bay had won the two previous games in the series before those four, 34-17 in California in 2016 and 27-9 in Florida in 2018. The former included a 249-yard rushing performance by the Buccaneers, led by Jacquizz Rodgers' 154 on 26 carries. In the latter, the Bucs' defense sacked Nick Mullens four times and intercepted him twice while Winston threw touchdown passes to Cam Brate and Adam Humphries.

The aforementioned 2002 Divisional Round win for the Bucs is the only postseason contest the team has had against San Francisco. Mike Alstott scored on a pair of two-yard runs, Brad Johnson threw two touchdown passes and the Bucs kept Jeff Garcia and the 49ers' offense at bay with picks by Rondé Barber, Derrick Brooks and Dwight Smith.

As for that turning-point contest in 1997, it famously featured Warren Sapp knocking out Young and Rice with early injuries. San Francisco still managed to take a 6-0 lead into halftime as the Bucs' offense took time to get going, but the defense got even stinger in the second half, allowing only 45 more yards. The Bucs took their first lead five minutes into the fourth quarter on Trent Dilfer's one-yard rollout touchdown pass to tight end Dave Moore. Much of the rest of the offense was provided by fullback Mike Alstott, who finished the game with 119 yards from scrimmage, including 46 of the 53 yards on the game's only touchdown drive. Young came back into the game to start the fourth quarter but was promptly sacked by Hardy Nickerson and intercepted by Tyrone Legette on consecutive plays, setting up Michael Husted for his second field goal, a 34-yarder, and the game's final points.

NOTABLE CONNECTIONS

• San Francisco General Manager John Lynch was inducted into the Buccaneers' Ring of Honor at Raymond James Stadium in 2016. Lynch played for the Buccaneers for the first 11 seasons of a career that landed him in the Hall of Fame, and he was a key part of the historic defense that led a franchise turnaround, peaking with a victory in Super Bowl XXXVII.

• Lynch and Head Coach Kyle Shanahan came in together as the 49ers' new leadership in 2017. Shanahan got his first NFL coaching job in Tampa, as an offensive quality control coach under Jon Gruden in 2004-05.

• Buccaneers Head Coach Todd Bowles played one season for the 49ers as a safety in 1991. Quarterbacks Coach Thaddeus Lewis also spent time with San Francisco as a quarterback in 2016.

• San Francisco's Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Line Coach Chris Foerster served as the Buccaneers' offensive line coach from 1996-2001, following Tony Dungy from the Vikings to Tampa and holding that job for Dungy's entire tenure with the Buccaneers.

• Charlie Heck, who is currently starting at right tackle for the Buccaneers with Luke Goedeke on injured reserve, most recently played for the 49ers before coming to Tampa. Though Heck spent most of the 2024 season on the Arizona Cardinals' practice squad, he was signed off that unit to San Francisco's active roster in late December and immediately thrust into the lineup, starting the 49ers' last two games at left tackle.

• 49ers Offensive Assistant/Wide Receivers Coach Andrew Hayes-Stoker was the Buccaneers' wide receivers coach in 2014 and 2015.

• Gus Bradley, who is in his first season as the 49ers' assistant head coach of defense, got his first NFL coaching opportunity with the Buccaneers, working on Jon Gruden's staff from 2006-08. Bradley was the linebackers coach in the first two of those seasons and a defensive quality control coach in 2008.

• San Francisco was one of three teams that Buccaneers kicker Chase McLaughlin played for in his 2019 rookie season. He signed with the 49ers in November and kicked in three games before being released in November. McLaughlin made seven of his eight field goals and all eight of his extra point attempts during his time with the 49ers.

SENIOR COACHING STAFFS

Tampa Bay:

• Head Coach Todd Bowles

• Offensive Coordinator Josh Grizzard

• Run Game Coordinator/Defensive Line Coach Kacy Rodgers

• Pass Game Coordinator/Outside Linebackers Coach Larry Foote

• Special Teams Coordinator Thomas McGaughey

San Francisco:

• Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

• Offensive Coordinator Klay Kubiak

• Defensive Coordinator Robert Saleh

• Special Teams Coordinator Brant Boyer

KEY 2025 ROSTER ADDITIONS

Buccaneers:

• QB Teddy Bridgewater (FA)

• LB John Bullock (UDFA)

• T Benjamin Chukwuma (UDFA)

• P Riley Dixon (UFA)

• WR Emeka Egbuka (1st-round draft pick)

• G Dan Feeney (FA)

• T Charlie Heck (UFA)

• WR Tez Johnson (7th-round draft pick)

• G Michael Jordan (FA)

• CB Kindle Vildor (UFA)

• CB Benjamin Morrison (2nd-round draft pick)

• CB Jacob Parrish (3rd-round draft pick)

OLB Haason Reddick (FA)

• DL Elijah Roberts (5th-round draft pick)

• DL Elijah Simmons (FA)

• OLB David Walker (4th-round draft pick…on injured reserve)

• RB Josh Williams (UDFA)

49ers:

• G Connor Colby (7th-round draft pick)

• DL Alfred Collins (2nd-round draft pick)

• TE Luke Farrell (UFA)

• LB Luke Gifford (UFA)

• DL Bryce Huff (T-PHI)

• RB Jordan James (5th-round draft pick)

• QB Mac Jones (UFA)

• LB Nick Martin (3rd-round draft pick)

• WR Skyy Moore (T-KC)

• P Thomas Morstead (FA)

• S Siran Neal (UFA)

• K Eddy Pineiro (FA)

• S Jason Pinnock (UFA)

• WR Demarcus Robinson (UFA)

• WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling (FA)

• S Marques Sigle (5th-round draft pick)

• CB Upton Stout (3rd-round draft pick)

• WR Jordan Watkins (4th-round draft pick)

• LS Jon Weeks (UFA)

• DL C.J. West (4th-round draft pick)

• DL Mykel Williams (1st-round draft pick)

ADDITIONAL 2025 CHANGES/DEVELOPMENTS OF NOTE

Buccaneers:

• The Buccaneers rolled into 2025 with their fourth offensive coordinator in the last four years. This year's transition, however, is a bit different than the last two. In 2023 and 2024, Dave Canales and Liam Coen, respectively, came to town with entirely new offensive systems that the players had to absorb. In 2025, the Buccaneers followed the departure of Coen to be the Jacksonville Jaguars' head coach by promoting former Pass Game Coordinator Josh Grizzard from within. Grizzard is certainly evolving the Bucs' offense in new ways and have his own spin on play-calling, but the basic system remains the same, offering a very helpful continuity for a team that is also returning all of its offensive regulars from a unit that finished in the top five in 2024 in net yards, points scored, rushing yards and passing yards. After Grizzard's promotion, the Buccaneers also hired one of his former colleagues, Kefense Hynson, to be the team's new pass game coordinator.

• To celebrate their landmark 50th season, the Buccaneers have unveiled a new sort of throwback uniform in 2025. In addition to the popular "Creamsicle" togs that they will don for the Thursday night game against Atlanta in Week 15, the Bucs have also worn, for this season only, a white version of their original uniforms worn during the 1976 season. Those uniforms made their debut in the home opener against the Jets in Week Three and were broken out again when the Bucs played at Seattle in Week Five, a game that was a battle of the NFL's two expansion teams from 1976.

• While Todd Bowles remains the play-caller for Tampa Bay's defense, he did make some changes to his defensive coaching staff. Mike Caldwell, who was part of the Bucs' staff from 2019-21 when Bowles was the defensive coordinator, returns to tutor the inside linebackers. Larry Foote has moved from inside linebackers to outside linebackers and is also the team's run game coordinator. George Edwards, who previously coached the outside linebackers, is now the pass game coordinator.

• The Buccaneers started the season without All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs and wide receiver Chris Godwin, but both returned to the lineup in Week Four. However, the Buccaneers' injured reserve list has grown considerably as the season has progressed. Wide receiver Jalen McMillan sustained a severe neck strain in Week Two of the preseason against Pittsburgh and is expected to be sidelined for at least half of the regular season. He is currently on injured reserve but can be designated for return. Since the start of the season, the Buccaneers have also lost defensive linemen Calijah Kancey, tackle Luke Goedeke, guard Cody Mauch, tight end Ko Kieft and safety Rashad Wisdom to injured reserve. Goedeke is expected to return from IR at some point but Kancey, Mauch and Kieft are likely to miss the rest of the season.

• The changes made to the kickoff process by the NFL during the offseason appear to have impacted the Buccaneers' strategy for that play in a significant manner. Now that a touchback on a ball caught or landing in the end zone puts the ball at the receiving team's 35, the Buccaneers have relied a lot less on touchbacks, which they produced on more than 75% of their kickoffs last year. With that in mind, the team took kick coverage units into serious consideration when shaping the 53-man roster and multiple players – including linebacker John Bullock, cornerback Josh Hayes, outside linebacker Markees Watts and wide receivers Ryan Miller and Kameron Johnson – made the team in large part due to their special teams contributions.

49ers:

• As anticipated, San Francisco committed long-term to quarterback Brock Purdy, signing the former 2022 draft's Mr. Irrelevant to a five-year, $265 million deal in the offseason. That enormous raise for Purdy, who had been hitting the cap for less than a million dollars a season, necessitated some tough decisions for the 49ers. General Manager John Lynch described the corresponding moves as "a tough pill to swallow" and "a little uneasy" but "necessary."

• Those moves included trading away wide receiver Deebo Samuel and running back Jordan Mason and releasing defensive tackles Maliek Collins and Javon Hargrave. The team also did not retain cornerback Charvarius Ward (Colts), safety Talanoa Hufanga (Broncos), linebacker Dre Greenlaw (Broncos), edge rusher Leonard Floyd or cornerback Isaac Yiadom (Saints), all of whom left in free agency. The offensive line lost some depth, too, when tackle Jaylon Moore landed a lucrative deal in Kansas City and guard Aaron Banks did the same with Green Bay.

• The 49ers were able to keep some of their most important players in the building, getting new contracts done with superstar linebacker Fred Warner as well as George Kittle, perhaps the NFL's best two-way tight end. Both became the highest-paid players at their positions in the NFL.

• Like the Buccaneers, the 49ers have dealt with a significant string of injuries in the early part of the season. Wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk started the season on the reserve/PUP list and has remained there since. After the season began, the team lost Kittle, edge rusher Nick Bosa and safety Malik Mustapha to injured reserve. Kittle and Mustapha are expected to return to the active roster at some point but Bosa's season is over.

• Head Coach Kyle Shanahan made some significant changes to the top level of his coaching staff, bringing in new coordinators on offense, defense and special teams. Nick Sorensen's tenure as the defensive coordinator lasted one year as the 49ers didn't hesitate to bring back Robert Saleh for that position following his midseason ouster from the head coach seat with the Jets. On offense, Klay Kubiak was promoted to the coordinator spot after previously serving as the team's pass game specialist. And on special teams, previous coordinator Brian Schneider was replaced by Brant Boyer, who had held that same position for the Jets for the past nine seasons.

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TAMPA, FL - October 02, 2025 - Creamsicle helmet during practice at AdventHealth Training Center. Photo By Kyle Zedaker/Tampa Bay Buccaneers