The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers will kick off the NFL's Week 18 schedule with the NFC South division title on the line.
The NFL released the schedule for the final week of the 2025 season on Sunday evening, and it starts with the Panthers' visit to Tampa on Saturday, January 3, with kickoff set for 4:30 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast by ESPN.
The winner of the game is likely to be the NFC South champion, though the Buccaneers also need the Atlanta Falcons to lose one of their two remaining games in order to claim the title. The Falcons play the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night and finish the season with a Week 18 home game against the New Orleans Saints.
The Buccaneers fell to 7-9 with a 20-17 loss at Miami on Sunday but remained alive in the division-title hunt when the Panthers also lost at home to Seattle, 27-10. That dropped Carolina's record to 8-8, and with a win over the Panthers in Week 18 the Buccaneers would end up with a tiebreaker edge based on their record against common opponents. The fly in the ointment is the Falcons, who could also finish the season at 8-9 with two consecutive wins, which would set up a three-way tie at the top of the division standings. In such a scenario, the Panthers would win the relevant tiebreaker based on their record in the three-way battle with the Bucs and Falcons.
The Buccaneers are seeking a fifth straight division title, which would be a record in the NFC South, which began play in 2002. Tampa Bay is also trying to qualify for the playoffs for a sixth season in a row.
