The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were on a bye last week, which gave players a chance to rest and recuperate, coaches a chance for some self-scouting and the rest of us an opportunity to focus on what was going on around the rest of the league. I tried to help with that by providing a "Viewing Guide" for Buccaneers fans who wanted to root for outcomes that were in the best interests of our own team. And, lo and behold, some of those desired outcomes came to be!
For instance, I had suggested holding your nose and rooting for the Carolina Panthers to beat the Green Bay Packers. While we do want to keep the Panthers at bay in the NFC South standings, the opportunity to knock the Packers out of the top spot in the NFC was even more enticing. The Panthers did indeed pull off the upset, and the Buccaneers and several other teams leapt over Green Bay in the conference standings. It may be a bit early to be thinking about the race for the #1 seed in the NFC, but we might as well set our goals high. Don't worry, you can now go back to rooting against the men in teal.
We were also rooting for, and got, a Minnesota Vikings upset of the Lions in Detroit. The NFC race is top-heavy and could come down to tiebreakers, and the Bucs don't want to be tied with the Lions after losing at Ford Field in Week Seven. The Patriots held off the Falcons; the Cardinals took the Cowboys down a notch. We didn't get the Washington or New Orleans wins we wanted, but you can't get too greedy. Overall, it was a good bye week for the Buccaneers who return to action in a tie for the best record in the conference.
Every week brings new rooting interests, though, and we will be reassessing our priorities every Thursday. As always there are some particularly important matchups on the schedule for Week 10, such as the Rams at the 49ers late Sunday afternoon and the Eagles at the Packers on Monday Night Football.
So who should we be pulling for this week? I've got some ideas. Here are my suggestions for which teams to root for from Thursday through Monday, with the games presented in chronological order. This is your 2025 Week 10 Viewing Guide.
Las Vegas Raiders (2-6) at Denver Broncos (7-2), Thursday, 8:15 p.m. ET
If you want to wait until Sunday to start paying attention to this week's slate of games, you can (though you'll need to get up early on Sunday…see below). This all-AFC matchup obviously won't affect the NFC standings and the Buccaneers don't have either of these teams on their 2025 schedule. That means no strength of schedule implications and no worries about how these teams look going forward. I guess you could dust off an old habit and root against Sean Payton; that's a valid take. If I tune into this game it will mostly be to watch Raiders tight end Brock Bowers and, no, that's not for fantasy football reasons. (It's totally for fantasy football reasons.)
Verdict: Go Brock and the Raiders!
Atlanta Falcons (3-5) at Indianapolis Colts (7-2), Sunday, 9:30 a.m. ET
If you're like me, you usually forget that there is an international game going on early on Sunday morning until it's about halfway done. I think I can remember this week because I'll want to tune in and throw my support behind Daniel Jones, Sauce Gardner and the Colts as they take on the Falcons in Berlin. I know Atlanta is 3-5, three games off the division pace and in third place behind the Panthers, but I can't shake the feeling that the Falcons have a second-half run in them. And they've already beaten the Bills, so let's not assume they can't beat the Colts. We definitely don't want that.
Verdict: Auf geht's, Colts!
New Orleans (1-8) at Carolina Panthers (5-4), Sunday, 1:00 p.m. ET
Two weeks in a row that we need to root for the Saints?! Uncool. I would never take the Saints lightly, but they are last in the conference standings, were sellers at the trade deadline (Rashid Shaheed to the Seahawks, Trevor Penning to the Chargers) and are breaking in a rookie quarterback. It would be a massive upset if they got back into the NFC or division race. So we'll ask for their help here in upsetting the Panthers, who are now just 1.5 games behind the Buccaneers in the NFC South standings. The Bucs and Panthers have two head-to-head games still to play in the final three weeks of the season, so as long as the division race stays close there could be some nail-biting in late December. Let's get as much of a cushion as possible before then.
Verdict: Go marching in to Charlotte, Saints!
New York Giants (2-7) at Chicago Bears (5-3)
The Bears are knocking on the doors to the NFC playoff ballroom after their crazy last-minute win over Cincinnati in Week Nine. In fact, they are tied with Detroit for the seventh-best record in the conference but lose that final Wild Card spot at the moment due to a head-to-head loss to the Lions in Week Two. There may be some instances in the next two months when we'll be rooting for Chicago, particularly when they are playing other teams in the NFC North, but this is not one of them. Let's try to keep the number of teams in play for the seven postseason spots as low as possible. One loss won't eliminate Chicago from that list, but it won't help them in the long run.
Verdict: Go Big Blue!
Jacksonville Jaguars (5-3) at Houston Texans (3-5), Sunday, 1:00 p.m. ET
Buffalo Bills (7-1) at Miami Dolphins (2-7), Sunday, 1:00 p.m. ET
Cleveland Browns (2-6) at New York Jets (1-7), Sunday, 1:00 p.m. ET
Here's a trio of all-AFC matchups in the early afternoon slot, none of which matter too much to the Buccaneers. You can root for the Texans to help the Bucs' strength of victory and strength of schedule numbers, and I think I'll be pulling for the Bills to beat Miami without looking too good while doing it. A loss in South Florida could put that team in a very bad mood for the following Sunday when the Buccaneers come to town.
Verdict: Go Texans and Bills!
Baltimore Ravens at Minnesota Vikings, Sunday, 1:00 p.m. ET
This is another easy one for obvious reasons, as we almost always pull for the AFC team in an interconference matchup. This one could be fun. The Ravens have Lamar Jackson back but what Brian Flores's Vikings defense did to Jared Goff and the Lions last week was eye-opening. Hopefully, that won't happen to Jackson, Derrick Henry and company because the Vikings are another team that are likely to be in the battle for Wild Card spots at the end of the season. Let's avoid letting them get on a roll.
Verdict: Say "Nevermore!" to a Vikings win.
Arizona Cardinals (3-5) at Seattle Seahawks (6-2), Sunday, 4:05 p.m. ET
This one isn't quite as cut-and-dried as the two team's records would suggest. The Seahawks are one of the three other 6-2 teams the Buccaneers are tied with for the conference's best record, so of course we want them to lose, right? Well, yes, but we also don't want to see too many signs of life from the Cardinals, who just snapped a five-game losing streak by beating the Cowboys in Week Nine. I may be asking for a lot, but what I'd really like to see here is a game in which both teams struggle but the Cards eke it out.
Verdict: Go Cardinals, lightly.
Los Angeles Rams (6-2) at San Francisco 49ers (6-3), Sunday, 4:25 p.m. ET
This one requires some thought. If they weren't playing each other, we'd likely be rooting for both of these teams to lose. They're both currently in Wild Card spots but the Rams are tied for the NFC's best record and the 49ers are just a half-game back of that, so both of them are clearly still in the hunt for the top seeds in the conference. The tiebreaker for me is that the Buccaneers have already beaten the 49ers while they still have to go to Los Angeles to face the Rams in prime time in Week 12. The win over the Niners gives the Bucs a tiebreaker advantage if it comes down to it, whereas we don't know yet if they'll end up with the same edge over the Rams. Plus, the Rams – and particularly the Matthew Stafford-led offense – have gotten on a bit of a roll, so we'd like to see them take a turn in the other direction in the weeks leading up to that Week 12 showdown.
Verdict: Go Niners!
Detroit Lions (5-3) at Washington Commanders (3-6), Sunday, 4:25 p.m. ET
The Lions haven't lost two games in a row since October of 2022, so I wouldn't suggest betting on the Commanders this week, particularly with Jayden Daniels now on injured reserve. But this isn't a betting column, it's a discussion of who we, as Bucs fans, want to win, and that's clearly Washington. Detroit currently sits in the seventh spot in the NFC playoff standings, but they are still only one game off the overall lead and you'd be hard-pressed to find a neutral observer who doesn't believe the Lions will stay in the thick of the race for the top seed. With Daniels out and a 3-6 record, the Commanders are behind 13 other teams in the NFC and facing some serious hurdles to get back into the playoff hunt. If they go on a run behind Marcus Mariota, we can worry about them later; for now, let's root for them to hand the Lions a second straight loss.
Verdict: Go Commanders!
Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2) at Los Angeles Chargers (6-3), Sunday, 8:20 p.m. ET
This should be an entertaining game – though it probably would have been more entertaining if the Chargers Joe Alt hadn't just joined their other star offensive tackle, Rashawn Slater on injured reserve – but it doesn't matter much to the Bucs' playoff scenarios. In cases such as this, I always default to the fact that the Chargers have the coolest uniforms in the NFL so I root for them.
Verdict: Go Bolts!
Philadelphia Eagles (6-2) at Green Bay Packers (5-2-1), Monday, 8:15 p.m. ET
Here's another tricky one. The Eagles currently own the top spot in the NFC standings due to a tiebreaker edge over the Bucs and the Seahawks, but the Packers are only a half-game behind. How about a tie? Yeah, a tie would be great! Barring that extremely unlikely scenario, though, I think we have to pull for the Packers here. The Eagles have already beaten the Buccaneers but Green Bay won't play Tampa Bay in the regular season. Plus, the Eagles' 5-1 record against NFC opponents is currently the reason they win the tiebreaker for the top spot. Somebody needs to eat into that record a bit. If Green Bay wins and the Bucs take down the Patriots, that would put our squad in first place in the conference after 10 weeks, which would be an awfully nice place to be.
Verdict: Go Pack Go!
