There is a lot to like about how the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 2026 schedule was arranged, and we touched on some of those things last Friday, a day after the NFL dropped its full 272 game slate for this coming fall. In contrast, there is not really much to complain about – no extended road swings, no early bye week, only one Thursday night affair, very few bad-weather concerns.

That said, no schedule ever perfectly grants every wish by a given team. We may have to do a little bit of nit-picking this year, but Staff Writer/Reporter Brianna Dix, Buccaneers.com Contributor Gabriel Kahaian and I are going to find something about this schedule we don't love. It's what we do. Last year, for instance, Gabe didn't like that the NFL was sending the Bucs on consecutive road trips four different times during the season, so he swapped the order around a little bit. There's nothing so egregious on this year's schedule – in fact, for the first time in 35 years, the Buccaneers won't play away games in consecutive weeks at any time this season – but there are some smaller glitches (in our opinion) here and there we can fix.

One ground rule: We can only change things that could have been changed by the actual schedule-makers. We can't, for example, switch the game against the Cowboys from Dallas to Tampa; that this would be a road game has been set in stone since just after the 2025 season ended. And we can't put the Bucs in the league's annual kickoff game because that had to be set in Seattle and the Seahawks aren't on Tampa Bay's schedule this year.

This is the second in our series of four schedule-related debates. Here's the run-down for the series over the next few days:

Friday, May 15: What one thing would you most like to thank the NFL schedule makers for this year?

Monday, May 18: What is one thing you would change about the Bucs' schedule if you had the power?

Tuesday, May 19: What is your most anticipated game on the Bucs' 2024 schedule?

Wednesday, May 20: Who is the most interesting rookie the Buccaneers will face on their 2024 schedule?

The three of us are not going to duplicate answers, so the order of our debate could be important. Rotating from our previous order, Bri gets the first choice in this one, followed by Gabe and then me.

Brianna Dix: Switch Week Three (Home vs Vikings) and Week 18 (Away at Saints)

First off, I want to make note that the Bucs 2026 schedule is evenly dispersed and overall, I am happy with the placement of games along the docket. For the purposes of this exercise and if I had the power to, in order to break up three straight home games at Raymond James Stadium in September/early October with the Browns, Vikings and Packers, I would flip the Bucs' Week Three home game against the Vikings with the club's Week 18 road battle with the Saints.

This way, Tampa Bay is able to break up the trio of home games with a road sandwiched between and put a division opponent on the slate earlier. This would also prevent the Bucs from having to face the Saints so close together in Weeks 15 and 18. Facing an NFC South foe earlier in the year is traditionally better as every team in the league is still working to create synergy on the field early on. It takes a few games for every team to get into a rhythm and find its identity. For Tampa Bay, they now end the season at home against the Vikings and have a road clash with the Saints in Week Three between the Browns in Week Two and Packers in Week Four.

I am a firm believer in the phrase, "Better to get it over with," and in this case, the Bucs are able to do just that. The rivalry between the Bucs and Saints runs deep and Tampa Bay is able to cross one battle with the NFC South foe off the list earlier in the season.

Gabriel Kahaian: Swapping Saints Home and Away Matchups

Like the others, I would imagine, it took me some time to figure out what I would actually change from a schedule with far more positives than negatives. I considered adding a Thanksgiving or international game, but the logistical headaches of playing such contests might outweigh the internal appeal. After a bit more digging, I found a swap I think is worth making.

I'm a big believer in homefield advantage and some of the most beneficial times to have it are at the start and end of the season. For the fourth time since 2005, the Buccaneers will open and close a campaign on the road. The team will travel to Cincinnati in Week One and finish the regular season in New Orleans in a potentially pivotal NFC South showdown. I think I have a move that fixes this without any major sacrifices to our already advantageous schedule. I won'ttouch the Bengals game since the Bucs have three-straight home games immediately after. That leaves me with one option: how to approach the Saints game.

Swapping our Saints matchups in Week 15 (home) and Week 18 (away) seems like the best option. I am partial to the idea of having a cluster of NFC South opponents near the end of the year, helping us control our destiny in the division. Additionally, being in Raymond James Stadium down the stretch with possible postseason implications could provide an electric atmosphere. The one issue with this move is that the away game, now slated for Week 15, would give the Buccaneers one instance of back-to-back road games, ruining the whole "no consecutive road games in a single season in 35 years" thing. The team would now be heading to Baltimore then booking a flight to the Big Easy the very next week. That is not ideal, but Tampa Bay already is benefiting from an excellent schedule travel-wise. The farthest the team has to travel is to Chicago at just over 1,000 miles, with Dallas coming in second at around 915.

I view the final game being at home to be valuable, considering the reality where we may be playing to punch our ticket for the playoffs. Of course, I would love a world where that isn'teven an issue and we have been crowned division champions before then. I just like the idea of having any extra edge.

Scott Smith: Four Days in November

Both Bri and Gabe found ways to move the season finale in New Orleans to some other date. If it were within the rules of this exercise, I would also move it to anywhere but the Superdome. Alas, that is outside the scope of my (hypothetical) powers.

So, since we all seem to agree that there is little that needs to be changed about the order of the Bucs' games, I'm going to go back to a well I've dipped into multiple times in recent years. If I keep trying this, maybe someday I will be able to speak it into existence.

Here it is: If the league is going to keep sending the Buccaneers to Detroit seemingly everyseason, could they at some point, finally, put that game on Thanksgiving? I mean, they got so close this year! The Bucs do play in Detroit on November 22, just four days before the Lions play host to the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving. Do we really need another Lions-Bears affairduring our turkey feast? (Okay, to be honest, that sounds like a really awesome game this year.)The Bears have played in Detroit on Thanksgiving 20 times, including five of the last nine seasons, including this year. The Buccaneers have played in Detroit on Thanksgiving…never.

In fact, Tampa Bay's only appearance in a Thanksgiving Day contest was in Dallas in 2006. Two decades is long enough to wait. And it's not like Bucs-Lions lacks drama or appeal. These two teams have struck up something of a mini-rivalry of late, with six meetings in the last seven years, and most of them have been pretty entertaining. These are two teams with long recent playoff track records who were frankly a bit stunned to miss out on the postseason last year. They are on essentially the same mission. They both have potentially prolific offenses. This matchup would keep you awake after you ingested too much tryptophan at the Thanksgiving dining table. (Yes, I know that's a myth.)

Gabe posited that this might not be something that coaches or players would actually want, and he has a point that those are two groups that value routine and don't like playing on short weeks. I certainly wouldn't be lobbying for any more Thursday night games in September, October or December. However, I think the notion of playing on the national Thanksgiving Day stage would override those concerns, and anyway, I can solve the short-week thing. Move the Monday Night game against Carolina to Week 10, the Bucs' bye week to Week 11 and the game at Detroit to Week 12. With that bye week now in-between Carolina and Detroit, the Bucs would have neither a short week after a MNF game or a short week before a Thanksgiving Day game. All of that would entail moving some other games for other teams, too, but that's not my problem.