May 27 Updates
Each year, the NFL's schedule release in the spring is certain to draw mixed reactions from Buccaneers players, coaches and fans. This year, count Zyon McCollum among those who liked what they saw when the schedule dropped on May 14.
McCollum gave specific reasons for being pleased with the Buccaneers' 2025 schedule, including the way it begins, when the bye week falls and how often his crew will be playing underneath the lights.
"I love it," said the fourth-year cornerback. "I thought we got dealt a really good hand. A late bye week is really, really nice. Four prime-time games is always fun. Starting off, going into the division, is pretty crazy and it's going to get this season snowballing the right way."
The Buccaneers' bye week falls almost exactly at the season's midpoint, with eight games before it and nine after. It's impossible to predict when a bye week would be most beneficial during the season because a rash of injuries can happen at any time, but late byes are generally considered favorable. More games played before the break means more opportunities for injuries to pile up.
The Buccaneers will play at least four nationally-televised night games in 2025 (the possibility of games being flexed in the latter half of the season means it could eventually be more), and they won't have to wait long for the first one. Tampa Bay will be featured on Monday Night Football at Houston in Week Two and at Detroit in Week Seven. The Bucs will also face the Rams in Los Angeles on Sunday Night Football in Week 12 and will play host to the Falcons on Thursday night in Week 15.
The other Bucs-Falcons game also caught McCollum's attention. The Buccaneers will be dropped right into the thick of the NFC South division race, with a season-opening trip to Atlanta. The Buccaneers won their fourth straight division title in 2024 but, notably, lost both matchups with the Falcons. That included a thrilling but ultimately heartbreaking 36-30 overtime loss in Atlanta on another prime-time stage, a Week Five Thursday-nighter.
Last season, the Bucs' first road trip (in Week Two) sent them to Detroit, the same place they had been bounced from the 2023 playoffs nine months earlier by the Lions. The quick rematch gave the Bucs a chance at a bit of revenge, which they exacted with a 20-16 win, one of only two losses for the Lions at Ford Field during the regular season.
McCollum sees the Week One trip to Atlanta as a similar opportunity.
"I feel like we have revenge games and they always bless us with rematches going into the next season," he said. "We had a chip on our shoulder with that early game last year in Detroit, and now we'll have one this year in Atlanta."
CLICK HERE for a closer look at the Buccaneers' 2025 schedule.
May 20 Updates
When the NFL's full game schedule drops each spring, as it did for 2025 last week, it's really the completion of a story, not the full story itself. That's because each team has known exactly who its opponents for the 17-game regular season schedule would be since just after the previous season ended.
With that in mind, NFL coaches often downplay the importance of the final schedule, noting they were going to have to play each of those opponents at some point. How much could the order of those games really matter?
Of course, that doesn't really stop us from analyzing the schedule to find theoretical advantages or disadvantages for our favorite team. And one angle of analysis that has gained traction in recent years is the idea of "net rest advantage," thanks in large part to the annual study of the subject by Sharp Football Analysis. The idea is that any given game pits two teams against each other, and sometimes one of those teams has more time to prepare for the matchup then the other. Add up all the occasions when a team has more or fewer days of preparation than their opponent and you get its overall net rest differential.
For instance, when the Buccaneers play at Seattle in Week Five, they will be facing a Seahawks team that played on Thursday night in Week Four. Thursday games make for a short week of preparation before they are played but also give the teams involved a "mini-bye," as they then have Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. The Buccaneers play on Sunday in Week Four, which means Seattle will have three more days than they do to get ready for their meeting in Week Five.
The biggest advantage (and disadvantage) comes from full bye weeks. If a team coming off a bye week plays a team that did have a game that previous week, that gives them seven more days to prepare. And in this particular case, the Buccaneers got lucky with their 2025 schedule. They will not face a single team coming off a full bye week this fall.
That's not quite as unusual of a development as you might think. The Buccaneers are one of 11 teams, or essentially a third of the league, that will not play a team coming off a full bye week in 2025.
Overall, the Buccaneers have a slightly positive net rest advantage in 2025, with an edge of plus-two days over the course of the entire season. The toughest stretch for the Buccaneers in this regard comes in Weeks 5-6, as not only Seattle but then also San Francisco a week later will play Tampa Bay after having a Thursday night game the previous week. That's six total days on the wrong side of the ledger, and the Bucs will also lose one day of prep to the Jets in Week Three and the Saints in Week Eight after playing Monday night games. That's eight days of net rest disadvantage on the season.
On the other side of the ledger, the Buccaneers pick up seven extra days on the Patriots in Week 10 as they come off their Week Nine bye. The Patriots are scheduled to play the Falcons on Sunday in Week Nine. Also, Tampa Bay will have three more days of rest than Carolina in Week 16 after playing Atlanta on Thursday night in Week 15. That's 10 extra days, for a total net differential of +2 on the season.
According to Sharp Football Analysis, that puts the Bucs pretty much right in the middle of the NFL pack this season. They are one of three teams tied for the 14th best net differential. That's quite a bit better than last year, when the Bucs net rest differential of -8 was tied for sixth-worst in the league.
The Lions top Sharp's list, with a plus-13 advantage. Detroit has eight different games in which they will have more rest than their opponents, and only one in which they will have less. On the other end of the spectrum is the Raiders, who have a league-worst negative-19 differntial. Bucs fans will take note of the Saints being second-to-last on the list, with a negative-14 differential, which includes three games against teams coming off a bye.
CLICK HERE to watch our 2025 Schedule Reaction Show.
May 15 Updates
Ever since the International Olympic Committee announced in October of 2023 that flag football would be included in the 2028 Summer games in Los Angeles, the idea of active NFL players being involved has been a hot topic. Some NFL players would surely relish the opportunity to form their sport's own version of basketball's Dream Team in 1992.
In fact, while playing in the flag football contest that capped last year's Pro Bowl, Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans expressed his own interest in participating in the Olympics, though at the time he was thinking of it in terms of a post-NFL undertaking.
"This is good practice for me," said Evans. "The Olympics – most likely I'll be retired by 2028, how many years is that? Three years. I don't know. But if I am retired, I would definitely like to play in the Olympics."
Most Buccaneer fans are hoping Evans is not retired by 2028, but even if he is still playing that likely wouldn't be an obstacle for his Olympic dreams. On Thursday, the NFL shared a resolution that has been crafted for consideration at the latest round of league meetings in Minneapolis next week. The resolution acknowledges the injury risk that could come with Olympic participation, which would surely be the main concern for any team with a player who is interested, but it's clear the league still considers it a worthwhile undertaking.
"[T]he membership believes that participation by NFL Players in flag football during the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California will support such growth and advance several League interests, including increasing fan and public interest in flag football, expanding the global reach of the NFL, and providing greater opportunities for fan engagement and for our League partners," reads the resolution in part."
The NFL will have to negotiate this issue with the NFLPA, Olympic authorities and other governing bodies but is preparing to begin that process if the resolution passes. The resolution does state that only one player per NFL team would be permitted to play on the U.S. Olympic team, with additional International Pathway players eligible to play for their own countries.
CLICK HERE to relive the biggest plays from Mike Evans' historic 2024 season.
May 13 Updates
Like every special teams coach in the NFL, the Buccaneers' Thomas McGaughey had to usher his troops through a sudden and drastic change in that phase of the game thanks to the league's new "dynamic kickoff" process. That experience might pale compared to what McGaughey and his charges have to prepare for in 2025.
The NFL was pleased enough with its new kickoff format, which now features two lines of players stationed about five yards a part and not allowed to move until the ball is caught. The change did increase the number of kickoffs without posing a significant injury risk, but it didn't quite go far enough in that former goal. The percentage of kickoffs that were returned increased from 21.8% in 2023 to 32.8% in 2024, but the league would like to see that number more in the 60-70% range.
Thus, team owners voted to keep the rule going forward but to make one very important tweak: Now, when the ball is kicked into the end zone for a touchback, the offense will start at its own 35 instead of its own 30.
McGaughey thinks that is going to have an enormous affect on the play, and likely even on the way teams put their rosters together.
"It will be a lot more returns," said the veteran coach. "The difference, percentage-wise, between the ball being at the 30 and being at the 35 is huge. That's a big, big difference. I can promise you, head coaches are not going to want that ball…defensive head coaches are not going to want that ball at the 35. You get a first down, you're in field goal range."
A large increase in kickoff returns will make having a good return man (or two) on your roster more important, but perhaps the bigger roster impact will be driven by the growing need to contain those returners.
"It's going to change the game a lot," said McGaughey. "It will change how rosters are going to be built. It's going to change how the game will be played. So it will be interesting to see what happens. It's going to be guys that can cover kicks. Instead of having six or seven touchbacks or five touchbacks a game, there's going to be five more returns, or four more returns, or six more returns. So it's going to be a real play instead of just being a ceremonial play with the ball kicked out of the end zone."
CLICK HERE for photos of the Buccaneers' Phase Two offseason workouts.
May 9 Updates
Head Coach Todd Bowles got his first look at the Buccaneers' newest players in an NFL practice setting on Friday afternoon when the team opened its weekend rookie minicamp. All of the camp participants – including 34 of whom were only in town on tryout contracts – had logged only a few hours of meetings prior to the practice, so Bowles wasn't expecting a lot of nuanced playbook knowledge on Friday. In addition, there are no pads or hits allowed in offseason work, so the "t-shirts-and-shorts" setup was never going to offer much real evidence about how the roster was going to shape up.
That said, there are still some traits that can stand out in such a setting, most notably speed. The Buccaneers notably added some of that during the 2025 draft, and after practice Bowles was asked if seventh-round wide receiver Tez Johnson had been the fastest player on the field. Bowles' answer was a succinct but categorical, "No."
Obviously, that begged a followup question about who was the fastest player on the field, and this too drew a one word answer: "Parrish."
That would be another 2025 draft pick, third-round cornerback Jacob Parrish out of Kansas State. Truth be told, this wasn't a shocking answer; Parrish was a state-champion sprinter as a prep in Kansas and his 4.35-second 40-yard dash time at the NFL Scouting Combine featured prominently in his pre-draft evaluation.
The Bucs, and Bowles in particular, covet speed at cornerback more than almost any other position, and the team's two current outside starters, Jamel Dean and Zyon McCollum, both stood out for their 40 times when they were on the draft recruiting trail. Bowles also noted several times this offseason, prior to the draft, that he wanted more playmakers in the secondary, and Parrish had five interceptions and 21 passes defensed over the past two seasons at Kansas State.
Parrish rolled that ball hawking success over into his first NFL practice Friday, standing out with a leaping interception. Bowles probably cares more about Parrish's speed than one random play on a May afternoon, but it certainly wasn't a bad way for the rookie to make his initial mark at the AdventHealth Training Center.
"He got a good pick," said Bowles. "[It was] good to see him do some things. Again, it's t-shirt and shorts but it's good to see him make a first impression.
"He's got very good ball skills. He's got very good awareness. That's what you like about him. He's got very good awareness and ball skills and [he] competes. I look forward to that challenge of him getting out there every day and seeing that come to fruition."
By the way, while Johnson may not have looked faster than his new Bucs teammate on Friday, he was able to make a good first impression, too.
"I mean, he's quick," said Bowles of Johnson. "He's a quick player. We know he's quick, we know he's fast, we know he can run routes and we know he's a receiver. When you're that light, you have to be very quick and he's very quick. I'll be interested to see, going forward, how he learns more."
CLICK HERE to hear more from Coach Bowles after minicamp practice on Friday.
May 8 Updates
Emeka Egbuka won't be the first Buccaneer ever to wear jersey number 9 – Joe Tryon-Shoyinka sported it for the last four years – but he could be the first Tampa Bay wide receiver to take it into regular-season action.
The six players the Buccaneers selected in the 2025 NFL Draft two weeks ago have now received the jersey numbers they are expected to wear for the team. Of course, all roster numbers are potentially subject to change, but if Egbuka does wear number 9 this season he will definitely be blazing a new trail. Only 10 other men have worn the #9 jersey for the Buccaneers, and eight of those were either punters or kickers. The exceptions were Tryon-Shoyinka and quarterback Mike Pawlawski, who was on the 1992 roster but never actually saw action in a regular-season game. The most prominent #9 in team history was Josh Bidwell, who in 2005 became the first – and still only – Tampa Bay punter ever to make the Pro Bowl.
Jerseys were officially issued to the rookies on Thursday as they arrived for the team's weekend minicamp. They are:
- WR Emeka Egbuka (1st round): 9
- CB Benjamin Morrison (2nd round): 21
- CB Jacob Parrish (3rd round): 25
- OLB David Walker (4th round): 51
- DL Elijah Roberts (5th round): 95
- WR Tez Johnson (7th round): 83
The 21 jersey has almost always been worn by a member of the secondary in Bucs history, most notably cornerback Donnie Abraham from 1996-2001. It was most recently worn by safety Mike Edwards last year in his second stint with the team. The 25 jersey has had alternating dalliances with defensive backs and running backs, including cornerback Brian Kelly, who wore it from 1998-2007 and was the leading interceptor on the 2002 defense that powered the franchise to its first Super Bowl championship.
Of the 16 players who have worn jersey number 51 in team history, all but one of them were linebackers, including Alshermond Singleton, who also started on that 2002 Super Bowl team. Broderick Thomas and Barrett Ruud also called 51 their own.
The #95 jersey has always belonged to defensive ends or interior defensive linemen in franchise history, and now Roberts joins that group. Perhaps most prominent in that number were Chris Hovan from 2005-09; it was most recently worn last year by defensive lineman C.J. Brewer.
Though the majority of NFL wide receivers now wear numbers from 1-19, the 83 jersey holds a prominent place in Bucs history. It was worn the longest by tight end Dave Moore, who ranks fourth in franchise history with 190 games, though 14 of those came in the 86 jersey in 2004. In between Moore's two stints with the Buccaneers, the 83 jersey went to wide receiver Joe Jurevicius, who made several prominent plays in the team's 2002 Super Bowl run. In 2012, wideout Vincent Jackson arrived as an unrestricted free agent and inherited #83, going on to rack up 4,326 receiving yards, the fifth most in franchise history.
