The Tampa Bay Buccaneers make a second consecutive road trip in Week Eight and return to play within the NFC South for the first time since the season opener as they face the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome. The game is set to kick off at 4:05 p.m. on Sunday, October 26, as the Bucs run on short rest after their Week Seven game in Detroit.
Despite losing in the Motor City, the 5-2 Buccaneers are still tied for the top spot in the NFC standings with the Eagles, Lions, 49ers, Seahawks and Rams. (The 4-1-1 Packers have one fewer win but actually have a slightly better win percentage at .750.) Tampa Bay has only played one other game against a division opponent, beating the Falcons in Atlanta, 23-20, in Week One. The Bucs are coming off a season low in points after a 24-9 prime-time loss to the Lions, but are still averaging 24.9 points per game, good for 13th in the NFL. Baker Mayfield suffered just his second interception of the season on a fluky play in Detroit on which the defender ripped the ball out of Cade Otton's hands during a tackle, but he has also compiled 13 touchdown passes and a 99.8 passer rating. He and the Bucs' offense will head into the heart of their season without their all-time leading receiver, Mike Evans, who suffered a broken clavicle against the Lions.
The Saints are off to their slowest start in a quarter-century, as the last time they were 1-6 after seven games was in 1999. However, three of their six losses have come by seven or fewer points and first-year Head Coach Kellen Moore is getting steady play out of second-year quarterback Spencer Rattler, a fifth-round pick in 2024. Rattler has thrown for 1,469 yards and eight touchdowns, and had been picked off just once before the Bears got him three times in Week Seven. Wide receiver Chris Olave has been a high-volume target, with 44 catches for 440 yards and three scores, though his 10.0 yards per catch is well below his career average. On defense, Carl Granderson leads the way with 4.5 sacks and is close to reaching 5.0 for the fifth time in his seven seasons in the NFL, and the ageless Demario Davis has already racked up 61 tackles and five tackles for loss.
Here are four major storylines and four head-to-head player battles to keep an eye on in Week Eight as the Bucs take on a division opponent for the first time since Week One.
TOP STORYLINES
Getting Back in Synch – Heading into last Monday night's game in Detroit, the Buccaneers were sixth in the NFL in scoring with 27.5 points per game and had reached the 20-point mark in each of their first six outings. Quarterback Baker Mayfield was drawing legitimate NFL MVP chatter after throwing for 12 touchdowns and just one interception and consistently coming up big in clutch moments. That offense took a dip in Detroit, though, scoring just nine points and slipping to 13th in the NFL in scoring. Mayfield threw the ball a season-high 50 times, which was definitely not the pregame plan, and he and his receivers looked out of synch for much of the night. It didn't help that Evans left with his injury after just 14 snaps and star rookie Emeka Egbuka was likely running at less than 100% due to a Week Six hamstring strain. Mayfield is obviously still a prime MVP candidate given his heroics through the first six weeks of the season, but without Evans, Bucky Irving and Chris Godwin the offense can't afford many more games in which it struggles with consistently moving the ball if the Buccaneers are going to stay near the top of a crowded NFC race. The Saints' defense is allowing 26.6 points per game, the sixth-highest average in the league, but is 12th against the pass and will be motivated to prolong the struggles of their long-time rivals.
Pre-Bye Momentum – The Buccaneers will enjoy their bye week after the trip to New Orleans, and no matter the results in Week Eight they will at worst be tied for first place in the NFC South with four of their six intra-division games still to be played. Despite their mounting injuries, the Buccaneers seem very likely to remain in the playoff hunt for the remainder of the season. All of that said 6-2 heading into the bye week will be substantially more of a psychological lift then 5-2 with a two-game losing streak. The Buccaneers have made a habit in recent seasons of taking their game to another level after their bye weeks, largely because their backs were against the wall due to mid-season lulls. This season, the Buccaneers have a chance to put themselves into the driver's seat earlier in the division race if they can got to 2-0 against NFC South opponents and stay near the top of the overall NFC standings. The Buccaneers' long and contentious history with the Saints makes it unthinkable that they would take this midseason matchup lightly despite New Orleans' record. The Saints are certain to provide a stiff challenge on Sunday, but if the Buccaneers can meet that challenge and leave with a win they will enjoy their bye week quite a bit more.
Rattling Rattler – The Saints used a high second-round draft pick on Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough in April, but Rattler held off the rookie in a wide-open competition for the starting job in the preseason and has made that decision look good for the most part. Though he had the aforementioned three-pick game on Sunday in Chicago, he has otherwise protected the football well and has shown that he can keep the Saints' offense moving with both his arm and his legs. As is the case with most young quarterbacks, of course, Rattler is more prone to mistakes when the opposing defense applies consistent pressure on him in the backfield, and that will obviously be one of the Buccaneers' main goals on Sunday in the Superdome. Last week against the Bears, Rattler completed 19 of 28 passes for 231 yards and two touchdowns when throwing from inside the pocket but was just one of four for two yards and two interceptions when the defense put him on the run outside the pocket. Rattler also has a significantly better completion rate this season when working against a zone defense then when faced with man coverage. The Buccaneers held the 49ers' offense somewhat in check in a 30-19 Week Six win largely because they were able to sack Mac Jones six times and get pressure on him on a high percentage of his drop-backs, and they did so while rarely sending extra blitzers. If the Bucs can get pressure with a four-man rush and give Rattler some tough man-coverage looks, that could considerably increase their chances of holding the Saints' offense down.
Protecting the Rock – The Buccaneers turned the ball over twice on Monday night in Detroit, doubling the number of giveaways they had committed during a 5-1 start. Not coincidentally, the Bucs are undefeated in the five games they have avoided turning the ball over even once, and 0-2 in the two contests they did cough it up. Meanwhile, the 1-6 Saints got their lone win so far over the Giants in Week Five and that happens to be the only game in which they have won the turnover battle in 2025. After a maddening stretch from 2019-21 in which the Saints took total control of the head-to-head series (barring, of course, the Bucs' playoff win in New Orleans during their 2020 Super Bowl run), the Bucs have turned the tables in the last three years, winning five of six. Again, in what is surely not a coincidence, the one game they lost in that stretch, in December of 2023, came after they lost the turnover battle, 4-0. It is obviously no secret that turnovers are one of the most important factors in deciding all NFL games, but that issue seems particularly crucial to this weekend's matchup in the Superdome.