If you follow the NFL, this is the time of the year you might hear the names Hans Schroeder, Michael North, Howard Katz, Blake Jones, Charlotte Carey, Onnie Bose and Lucy Popko.

Those are the various NFL executives who put their brains together and – with an enormous amount of help from the cloud – tackle the unenviable job of creating a 272-game regular-season schedule that works for 32 teams and close to 40 cities. Or, as the NFL Football Operations website puts it: "It takes thousands of cloud-based computers to produce thousands of possible schedules — a process that sets the stage for the schedule makers to begin the arduous task of picking the best possible one."

So if there is anything in particular you liked about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 2025 schedule, which dropped along with the rest of that 272-game behemoth on Wednesday night, you can choose to direct your thanks to Schroeder, North and the crew or perhaps AI. Either way, there's plenty to like about the 17-game slate facing the Buccaneers this coming fall as they seek a record-breaking fifth straight NFC South title.

In fact, we are going to start the thank you process right here as we run through a series of Roundtable discussions regarding the Bucs' new schedule. This year, Buccaneers.com Contributor Gabriel Kahaian is joining Staff Writer/Reporter Brianna Dix and me for our annual series of schedule debates, which will take place over the next two days. In each debate we will look at some aspect of the schedule – the good, the bad and the intriguing.

This is the first in our series of four schedule-related debates. Here's the run-down for the series over the remainder of the week:

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

Thursday, May 15: What is one thing you would change about the Bucs' schedule if you had the power?

Friday, May 16: What is your most anticipated game on the Bucs' 2024 schedule?

Friday, May 16: 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 is important. Gabe is new to our discussions, so we're going to let him go first, followed by Brianna and then me.

Gabriel Kahaian: Season Opener in Atlanta

Honesty, I do not think I could have asked for a better way to open the season. I understand that opening the season at Raymond James offers a homefield advantage; however the Buccaneers will be eager to make a statement early in Week One against a divisional opponent.

Tampa Bay lost both matchups to Atlanta in 2024 – one a high-scoring primetime battle in overtime and the other a close contest with a depleted receiving corps. Ultimately, the Bucs overcame these losses and won their fourth straight division title and enter 2025 seeking their fifth. What better way to set the tone than to seek revenge on a division rival?

The Buccaneers should have all hands on deck for the division matchup, a luxury they were not able to have in their injury-riddled past season. This will be the team's first look at Falcons' quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who showed flashes last season. That said, he is still relatively inexperienced with only three starts under his belt. He may be more prone to mistakes earlier in the season, something the Bucs can exploit. Marching into Mercedes-Benz Stadium and silencing the 'Dirty Birds' would be a powerful way to kick off the season.

The schedule makers gave us an opportunity to make an early statement and remind the Falcons who the Kings of the NFC South are – and for that, I am incredibly thankful.

Brianna Dix: Week Nine Bye Week

Last year, the Buccaneers had a Week 11 bye and coasted into that allotted break period on fumes with a laundry list of injuries. Following the bye, several players were able to return from ailments, and hopefully, the placement of this year's bye is just as impeccably-timed as last season's. In 2025, the Bucs will have their bye in Week Nine. Most often, a preferable bye is the midway point of the year to provide reprieve and a time to refresh for players, coaches and staff.

I would like to give the schedule-makers my gratitude for a middle-of-the-season bye week. Tampa Bay will have eight games prior to the bye, including two-straight road games against the divisional-rival Saints and the NFC North Champion Lions on Monday Night Football. Those are two pivotal games that will serve as a measuring stick for where the Buccaneers are at. Then, the Bucs will get their rest week.

After Week Nine, the Bucs have nine games left on their 2025 docket, including two consecutive road games against two division winners in the Bills (Week 11) and the Rams (Week 12), along with a pivotal Thursday Night Football matchup against the Falcons. Everything comes down to which teams play their best football in December and for Tampa Bay, a beneficial bye placement could catapult the team forward.

Scott Smith: (At Least) Six 1:00 PM Home Games

I feel like I am speaking for Head Coach Todd Bowles and his whole staff when I send my thanks for this quirk in the schedule. From Weeks Three through 14, the Buccaneers will play a total of six games at Raymond James Stadium and every one of them is currently scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. kickoff. Assuming that none of them get flexed to a different time slot – a pretty solid assumption – that's an amazing opportunity for the team to get into a rhythm when they're playing at home.

Coaches love sticking to the same routine week after week, and most of them vastly prefer getting right to kickoff at 1:00 p.m. over waiting around all day for a 4:20 p.m. game or, worse, a night game. Yes, this run of early-afternoon games at Raymond James Stadium is only possible because all three of the Buccaneers' Sunday and Monday night games are on the road – something I am definitely not giving thanks for – but that's a matter for a different Roundtable. (Foreshadowing.)

The Buccaneers are the only team in the NFC to make the playoffs in each of the last five seasons, and they have tied an NFC South record by winning four straight division titles. In that five-year span, the Buccaneers are 30-12 in regular-season games that kick off in the early afternoon. That's a .714 winning percentage, which is pretty, pretty good. In that same span, they are 21-21 in games starting later than that, which is great if you feel like picking 16th in the draft every year. Those aren't all home games, but I think the point is still clear: Let's play as many 1:00 p.m. games as possible.

The Buccaneers' Week 15 home game against Atlanta is on a Thursday night, and at least one of those was basically unavoidable. The eighth and final home game on the schedule is in Week 18 against Carolina, and the league hasn't officially scheduled the games for that weekend yet. I would say there's a very good shot that also ends up being a 1:00 p.m. game, which would make all of this even sweeter.