The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will kick off their 2025 season on Sunday with a road game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Kick off is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, and the game will be broadcast locally by FOX.

Tampa Bay is seeking a fast start that will help propel it back into postseason contention after its run of four straight NFC South titles was interrupted by a tiebreaker loss to the Carolina Panthers last year. The Buccaneers engineered more sweeping changes during the 2026 offseason than had been typical in their recent stretch of playoff success, bringing in a new Offensive Coordinator in Zac Robinson, bidding reluctant farewells to franchise pillars Lavonte David and Mike Evans and reloading significantly on defense through both free agency and the draft. The hope is that the Bucs, with better fortune on the injury front in 2026, can recapture their offensive dominance of 2024 while fielding a bigger, more aggressive and meaner defense.

Similarly, the Bengals want to snap a streak of three straight seasons without a playoff appearance, which followed their advancement to Super Bowl LVI in 2021 and the AFC Championship Game in 2022. Other than hoping to keep Joe Burrow under center for 17 games after he missed roughly half of last year with a toe injury, the Bengals did not need to add much to an offense centered around the star passer, wideouts Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgs and tailback Chase Brown. On defense, however, Cincinnati shook up the lineup after 30th in points allowed and 31st in yards allowed last year. The signature move was their trade of the 10th-overall pick in this year's draft for former Giants nose tackle Dexter Lawrence, but he was also joined by such veteran newcomers as defensive tackle Jonathan Allen, edge rusher Boye Mafe, safeties Bryan Cook and Kyle Dugger and, from the draft, edge rusher Cashius Howell.

Here are four major storylines and four head-to-head player battles to keep an eye on as the Bucs get their 2025 campaign underway this weekend.

TOP STORYLINES

The Tortoise and the Hare – Last season, the Buccaneers came out of the gates fast, compiling their first 3-0 start since 2005, and they were sitting at 6-2 roughly halfway through the season. At the same time, the Bengals also won their first two games – bucking a frustrating trend that had seen them open at 0-2 in each of the three previous seasons – but slipped to 3-8, mostly due to an injury to Joe Burrow. If these two teams represented the main characters in the classic Aesop fable, then the Bucs would have been the hare and the Bengals the tortoise. However, unlike that tale's ending, neither approach ended up in victory as both teams missed the playoffs. It was indicative of recent history, however, and the Bucs would certainly like to see their own trend continue. They are not only tied with Philadelphia for the longest active streak of Week One wins, at five, but they also started each of those five campaigns at 2-0. The Bengals played their starters more in the preseason last year in an effort to stop their trend of slow starts and won their first two before the Burrow injury derailed them. And the contrasting season starts extend to the team's quarterbacks, both previous first-overall draft picks. In his career, Burrow is 3-9 in his career in Week One and Two games but 40-24-1 the rest of the way. His all-time passer rating in that first group of games is 82.7, with 202.4 passing yards per game; those numbers improve to 104.3 and 282.8 in Weeks Three on. Since taking over as the Bucs' starter in 2023, Mayfield is 3-0 with nine touchdown passes, zero interceptions and a 114.5 passer rating in Week One.

Four Equals One – If the Buccaneers had one offseason pursuit ranked at the top of their list in 2026, it was amplifying the pass rush on defense, particularly off the edges. The free agency acquisition of Al-Quadin Muhammad (11.0 sacks for Detroit in 2025), the return of promising 2025 rookie David Walker from his knee injury and, in particular, the surprising availability of Miami Hurricanes whirling dervish Rueben Bain Jr. at the 15th pick in the draft all served to build optimism on that front and the early returns from the practice field seem very promising. But nothing has been proven yet, and one only needs to rewind to last season to know that even a concerted effort to pump up a pass rush can fail to yield results. The Buccaneers expect a very different outcome in 2026, however, and if they are proved correct it could shake up how Todd Bowles calls a game and provide more opportunities for the back end of the defense to make game-swinging plays. The Bucs have always been one of the league's most aggressive blitzing teams under Bowles' direction, but the hope is that they can dial back on that approach and more frequently get pressure with a four-man rush. Some combination of Bain, Muhammad, Walker, Yaya Diaby, Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey could be very dangerous if those players all reach their potential and work together as a unit. They will get their first opportunity to show what strides have been made on Sunday against Joe Burrow and the Bengals.

Offense Unveiling – Like Liam Coen in 2024, Zac Robinson came into his new role as the Bucs' offensive coordinator with the stated intention of fielding a balanced attack that includes an effective ground game. Tampa Bay accomplished that in Coen's season at the helm, ranking fourth in rushing yards and third in passing yards, but injuries made that success difficult to maintain under Josh Grizzard in 2025. The Bucs currently have a healthy offensive lineup, including the five returning O-Line starters from 2024, will surely be attempting to duplicate that success from two seasons ago. As such, we know in the broader strokes what Robinson and the Bucs' offense hope to accomplish, but we'll soon be finding out the more granular details of what the attack will look like on a play-to-play basis. For example, what mix of rushing schemes will Robinson employ, and will it include a lot more wide-zone concepts, as anticipated? Will the Bucs utilize the pistol formation like Robinson's Falcons did last year to try to make it less obvious if a run or a pass is coming? If Chris Godwin is primarily working out of the slot and Emeka Egbuka is the main "Z" receiver, what will be the shape of the roles for pass-catchers such as Jalen McMillan (assuming he can overcome a knee injury to play in Week One), rookie Ted Hurst and second-year man Tez Johnson? Learning the answers to such questions will be a weekly storyline during the first month or two of the season.

A Special Start – In noting the "sweeping changes" of the 2026 offseason above, we left one out. After a rough season in some areas in the kick and return game, the Buccaneers made a big move in that phase of the game, bringing in long-time special teams guru Danny Smith as their new coordinator. With roughly three decades as an NFL coordinator and a long run of success in that role with the Steelers during the Mike Tomlin administration, Smith has the résumé and an endless well of energy to match. The Buccaneers hope that Smith's coaching and some key personnel additions (Miles Killebrew, Kevin Knowles, Christian Rozeboom, plus the return of Ko Kieft from injury) will help them shore up some trouble areas from 2025 (kickoff coverage, blocked punts) and maybe even add some big plays in that part of the game. The Buccaneers have not returned a punt or a kickoff for a touchdown since 2010, the longest active drought for any team in the NFL. Tampa Bay already boasts one of the NFL's most accurate placekickers in Chase McLaughlin, who also happens to be deadly from long range, a reliable punter in Riley Dixon and a promising return man in Kameron Johnson. If other areas of special teams can be shored up, that part of the game could actually be a winning edge for Tampa Bay in 2026. Bowles recently estimated that a strong special teams crew could result in three or four more wins a season.

KEY MATCHUPS

1. Bengals WR Ja'Marr Chase vs. Buccaneers CB Jacob Parrish

Ja'Marr Chase is either the best receiver in the NFL or on a very short list of candidates for that title, and he's only gotten better in recent years. In 2024, he won the receiving Triple Crown, leading in receptions (127), receiving yards (1,708) and touchdown receptions (17) and last year, even with a good deal of quarterback upheaval, he led all players with 185 targets, a career high, and racked up another 125 catches and 1,412 yards. Chase is the complete package at the position, and that includes what he can do once the ball in his hands; his 651 yards after the catch last year was second to Puka Nacua among all receivers and roughly half of that came after he made contact with a defender. Chase and running mate Tee Higgins will be a serious challenge right out of the gate for the Bucs' outside corners, Jacob Parrish and Zyon McCollum. Chase can certainly make plays out of the slot but he took two-thirds of his snaps lined up out wide last season, and more often on the left side of the offense, where he should encounter Parrish. The 2025 third-round pick saw the majority of his action in the slot as a rookie but is now installed as an outside corner, which is the position he primarily played in college. He's a sticky cover corner who plays bigger than his size and has the innate confidence needed for the position. Parrish also knows the assignment this week, pointing to Joe Burrow's deadly accuracy and the pressing need to limit that YAC by Chase and Higgins.

2. Buccaneers RB Bucky Irving vs. Bengals LB Demetrius Knight

Bucky Irving was a breakout star as a rookie in 2024, with 1,514 yards from scrimmage and the best forced missed tackle rate this side of Derrick Henry. Unfortunately, significant shoulder and ankle injuries shrunk his numbers in his 2025 follow-up and never let him get into the groove that produced 5.4 yards per carry the year before. Irving is healthy again and the belief is that he can return to being the type of creative runner who can stack cuts on top of each other to turn seemingly small plays into huge gains. Among those trying to stop him on Sunday will be a pair of similarly young players who were quickly thrust into big roles, Bengals linebackers Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter. Cincinnati drafted Knight in the second round and Carter in the fourth last year and slid them right into the starting lineup next to each other in the middle of the defense, which led to the expected growing pains. Since then, the Bengals have restocked the defense all around those two young 'backers, starting with a man up front in Dexter Lawrence who should keep blockers off them in the second level. McKnight was second on the team last year to safety Jordan Battle in both total tackles (106) and tackles on run plays (61) and will be trying to contain Irving before he can break into the open for big plays.

3. Bengals T Amarius Mims vs. Buccaneers OLB Rueben Bain Jr.

Cincinnati believes it has a rising star in right tackle Amarius Mims, their first-round draft pick from 2024 who made noticeable strides in the second half of the 2025 season, particularly in dealing with such high-powered edge rushers as Myles Garrett. Mims is massive (6-8, 340) but he has nimble feet and the ability to keep defenders at bay with his long wingspan. Since keeping Joe Burrow healthy is the number-one key to the Bengals returning to playoff contention, the team needs Mims to continue his upward ascension. One of the players he'll be trying to keep away from Burrow on Sunday is also a first-round pick, Bucs rookie edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. Bain is expected to start opposite Yaya Diaby, and if their brief preseason came is an indication, Bain will most commonly rush from the left end of the defensive front, putting him in conflict with Mims. As big of a blocker as Mims is, Bain has shown the ability to move men much larger then himself with uncanny strength and a feel for leverage. He led the nation in quarterback pressures last season at Miami and finished with 9.5 sacks, with his performance in the college playoffs putting him in the spotlight. Bain is a relentless down-to-down defender who is motivated by an intense dislike for anyone in an opposing uniform.

4. Buccaneers C Graham Barton vs. Bengals NT Dexter Lawrence

It might not be a stretch to claim that after Burrow's health the next key to the Bengals rebounding in 2026 is newcomer Dexter Lawrence channeling his 2022-24 form, when he racked up 21.0 sacks, three Pro Bowl invitations, two All-Pro honors while being regarded as one of the league's premier run-stoppers. After their rough season on defense in 2025, the Bengals didn't think they could repair that unit if it didn't start with a force in the middle who could slow down opposing rushing attacks and soak up double-teams to create better pass-rush matchups on the edges. Cincinnati was 32nd in run defense and 23rd in sacks per pass play last season, so there is a lot of room for improvement with Lawrence leading the way. Countering that will be an assignment for all of the Bucs' interior linemen on Sunday, but since Lawrence, as noted, is likely to draw a good number of double-teams center Graham Barton should be right in the thick of that effort. After a very promising rookie campaign as a first-round pick in 2024, Barton had a difficult time taking a big leap forward in his second season because he was forced out of position to left tackle to start the season and he saw all his fellow O-Line starters around him miss significant time due to injury. Now, however, Barton is back at the pivot of that line that was so strong in 2024 and this time in position to take that big step forward. The barrel-chested 314-pounder plays with great strength at the point of contact but is also well-suited to run the schemes with more lateral movement expected to be a bigger part of the Bucs' offense in 2026.

Another Key Storyline this week is our Moffitt Stories of Courage special guest, Larry McKinnon.

Larry spent nearly 40 years serving the Tampa Bay community in law enforcement before facing a new challenge of his own: a stage 1 prostate cancer diagnosis in 2024 following a routine health exam. After undergoing surgery at Moffitt McKinley Hospital, Larry was so impacted by the care he received that, despite having no plans to come out of retirement, he was inspired to join Moffitt's security team and become part of its mission. Today, he uses his own experience to encourage others facing cancer, reminding them that while the journey can be scary and uncertain, there is always hope. "Cancer may challenge you, but it does not define you. You are stronger than you know," Larry shares. "Take it one day at a time, lean on your support, and trust in your care team. You're not alone. You've got this!" A Tampa resident for nearly his entire life, Larry enjoys spending time with his wife of 25 years, their grandchildren, their dog Doddle and boating. The Bucs were proud to welcome Larry as a Moffitt Stories of Courage special guest.