Bruce Arians: Buccaneers will play 'to win' vs. Panthers

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers endured an emotional start to the new year on Sunday afternoon that included wide receiver Antonio Brown essentially quitting the team during what became a 28-24 comeback win at the New York Jets. Tampa Bay enters the first full week of 2022 as the NFC South champion but cannot catch the Green Bay Packers atop the conference standings and, thus, shouldn't be all that interested in downing the Carolina Panthers in Week 18. 

However, Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians made it clear on Monday that he's not considering giving starters a weekend off before the postseason tournament. 

"You play to win. You play to get the second seed, that’s huge. We’re not resting anybody. We’re playing to win," Arians explained, according to Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk. 

The Bucs fell to the Los Angeles Rams earlier in the season and, thus, need to beat Carolina and also have the Rams lose to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday to climb to the No. 2 spot in the conference standings. 

Meanwhile, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said Monday he's planning to play his starters in Week 18 even though Green Bay has already clinched the No. 1 seed.