Opinion: The Buccaneers Are Likely To Play On Thanksgiving This Year

The NFL schedule will soon be released. We have known who the opponents will be for several months, but on Wednesday we will finally get the order of opponents for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This will include unknown factors such as Thursday Night Football, overseas games, the bye week and primetime matchups.

However, there is already reason to believe that the Buccaneers will be linked to one of the biggest primetime games of the year. A national stage that is a yearly tradition across the country. That would be the Thanksgiving Day game.

There are currently three primetime games played on Thanksgiving. One hosted by the Dallas Cowboys, one hosted by the Detroit Lions and one revolving primetime game. Without knowing any inside information, I can tell you that there is a good chance that the Buccaneers will play in one of these three games.

A Buccaneers Holiday Game?

The Detroit Lions have eight home games this season, including their Thanksgiving Day game. One of those home games will be vs the Cowboys, so we know they won’t be that Thanksgiving matchup. This only leaves seven possible options.

The NFL will want a good game for the world to see on their biggest stage. This will most likely eliminate a few of the Lions home opponents. Specifically, I wouldn’t expect the New York Giants or Cleveland Browns because they are both expected to be bad teams this year.

This leaves only the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, Pittsburgh Steelers and Bucs as likely options. All have some expectation to be good and present a decent enough matchup to watch. However,  I believe we can eliminate two more of these teams.

At this moment, the Steelers starting quarterback is listed as Mason Rudolph. There is also rookie Will Howard and journeyman backup Skylar Thompson on the depth chart. This leaves me with some hesitancy that the Steelers will in fact be good this year. They might end up with a winning record like they always do, but subjecting the world to that level of quarterback play is unappetizing on Thanksgiving. 

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I’m also skeptical that the Bears will be the Thanksgiving day matchup. This is for no other reason than we have seen it a lot in recent years. Of the Lions last seven games on Thanksgiving four of them have been against the Bears, including last season. I don’t expect a repeat of that game.

If you rule those two teams out as well, that just leaves three potential options; the Packers, Vikings and Buccaneers. All three teams made the playoffs last year and are expected to do so again this year. All three would be a good game to watch against the Lions.

Of these three, I give an edge to the Bucs and Vikings for two reasons. One is the recent history of big games against the Lions. The Lions and Vikings had an awesome week 18 clash to determine the division winner last season and the Bucs played the Lions in a great playoff matchup two years ago in Detroit.

The second is that the Lions played the Packers two years ago on Thanksgiving. That doesn’t prevent them from playing again this year, but a fresher matchup might be more interesting nationally. Plus the Lions have won six of their last seven games against the Packers, so that might take some shine off this as a primetime game as well.

It would be cool for the Bucs to get this national spotlight. They have been a very good team for the last several years, but haven’t always gotten the attention since Tom Brady’s retirement. Letting the world see the likes of Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans, Calijah Kancey, Antione Winfield Jr, and all the other stars on the roster would be great for everyone. 

We don’t know how things will look come Wednesday night’s schedule release. But if I were a betting man, which I am, I’d put my money on the Buccaneers playing in primetime on Thanksgiving.