The 2025 Tampa Bay Buccaneers were denied a fifth straight NFC South crown on Sunday when Atlanta defeated New Orleans and gave Carolina its first division title since 2015. That means, for the first time since 2021, the Buccaneers will not be playing a first-place schedule in 2026. Instead, Tampa Bay's 2026 list of opponents was finalized with matchups against the second-place teams in the NFC East, NFC West and AFC West.
Specifically, those three games are home dates against both Los Angeles teams, the Chargers and Rams, and a road trip to Dallas to play the Cowboys. The final game on the Bucs' 2026 opponent list wasn't finalized until the Rams beat the Arizona Cardinals late Sunday afternoon, thereby moving past San Francisco into second place in the NFC West.
The rest of the Buccaneers' 2026 opponent list was predetermined by the NFL's rotating schedule of division-on-division matchups. Tampa Bay will play all four teams in the NFC North and all four teams in the AFC East, with the remainder of the schedule fleshed out as always by six games against the other three teams in the NFC South.
To be more specific, here are the opponents for the Bucs' 17 regular season games in 2026:
HOME
- Atlanta Falcons
- Carolina Panthers
- Cleveland Browns
- Green Bay Packers
- Los Angeles Chargers
- Los Angeles Rams
- Minnesota Vikings
- New Orleans Saints
- Pittsburgh Steelers
AWAY
- Atlanta Falcons
- Baltimore Ravens
- Carolina Panthers
- Chicago Bears
- Cincinnati Bengals
- Dallas Cowboys
- Detroit Lions
- New Orleans Saints
The Buccaneers play nine games at home in 2026 because it is the NFC's turn to host all of the "17th games" that were added to the schedule in 2021. Each year, that game is an interconference matchup for every team with the two conferences alternating from year to year as the home teams. The Bucs' 17th game in 2026 is their matchup against the Chargers.
