NFL Disrespects Buccaneers With 2025 Schedule

The NFL schedule was released Wednesday night and we now know the schedule for all teams. Overall, the schedule for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers looks favorable. It comes with four prime-time games and a clear path to potentially being the number one overall seed in the NFC.

However, the NFL doesn’t seem to care about that. They aren’t interested in highlighting one of the best teams in the league on the national stage. That was made perfectly clear when the Bucs schedule was announced.

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Despite having four prime-time games, it feels like the Bucs were an afterthought in terms of nationally televised games. The NFL chose not to feature some of the Bucs best matchups across the league including a potential Super Bowl preview. Even in the prime-time games the Buccaneers did receive, it felt like they were short changed.

Here’s what I mean.

Of the Bucs four prime-time games two are Monday Night Football, one is Sunday Night Football and one is the Thursday night game. However, when you consider that basically every team plays a Thursday night football game it cheapens having that as a prime-time game despite the national stage. So really the Bucs were only selected for the other three.

The two Monday Night football games are highly anticipated matchups. First they will play the Houston Texans in week two. Remember that these two teams had an epic clash two years ago in an exciting shoot out. The other Monday Night game is in Detroit to play the Lions in a battle of two top ten, perhaps even top five teams in the NFL.

However, there is a problem with these games. Both will share the spotlight with a second Monday Night Football game played on the same night. Eyes taken away from these games and conversation taken away on the national platform. There are four scheduled Monday Night double headers this year and half of them take attention away from the Buccaneers.

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Fortunately, none of these are the Bucs most anticipated game of the season. That honor would go to a game that I believe could be a Super Bowl preview. That is week eleven against the Buffalo Bills.

These are two of the best teams in their respective conferences, maybe the best. It’s also a game that will feature two quarterbacks that will very likely be in the Most Valuable Player conversation. I have no doubt that this will be one of the best games we see from any team all season long.

But again, the NFL doesn’t care about that. They care so little about the Bucs that they stuck this clash of contenders in the 1:00 o’clock window. Buried in the schedule by several other games at the same time slot.

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How this game doesn’t get a prime-time slot, I can’t understand. Especially when you realize that the Monday Night football game that week is the Dallas Cowboys vs the Las Vegas Raiders. If you are going to play another game on Monday night then Cowboys vs Raiders would definitely have been a good choice because who wants to see that? Especially when you realize that the Cowboys, a team who didn’t make the playoffs last year and likely won’t this year, have twice as many prime-time games as the Buccaneers.

It’s always disappointing to see the Bucs overlooked like this. They are one of the most successful franchises in the NFL right now and they have some of the best players in the game today. However, regular season primetime isn’t what ultimately matters to this team. Winning on the playoff stage and ultimately on Super Bowl Sunday is where they can show the world how great this team really is.