Bucs Schedule: The Good
May 17th, 2026
Ending his AFC North curse?
When Joe first heard of the Bucs opening day opponent, one thing immediately popped in Joe’s head.
“Joe Burrow.”
Burrow is one of the most dangerous quarterbacks. And the thought of Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins matching up against (potentially) Benjamin Morrison and Zyon McCollum with Burrow pulling the trigger positively frightens Joe.
However, a man from Cincinnati with deep Bengals ties is all but predicting the Bucs will be eating a W when Week 1 ends.
John Breech of CBS is the son of long-time Bengals punter Jim Breech (1979-1992). And he’s seen first-hand how Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor regularly doesn’t have the Bengals ready to start a season. Therefore, Todd Bowles may finally get his first win over an AFC South team.
Breech believes Bowles and the Bucs could start the season 3-0.
The Bucs will definitely have a chance to get off to a hot start with their first three games coming against the Bengals, Browns and Vikings. In Week 1, they’ll face a Bengals team that’s just 2-5 in season openers under Zac Taylor. In Week 2, they’ll get a Browns team that will have a new head coach. And in Week 3, they’ll be facing a Vikings team that will likely have a new starting quarterback. That makes all three of those games winnable …
Joe isn’t overly worried about the Vikings. Joe’s never been much of a Kyler Murray fan in the NFL and J.J. McCarthy might be the most overrated quarterback since the turn of the century (unless you get your rocks off with McCarthy’s quality handoffs).
The Browns only worry Joe because new Browns coach Todd Monken is a damn good coach.
(No, Joe isn’t worried about Myles Garrett because Tristan Wirfs will take care of him.)
But then again, there’s Bowles’ AFC North curse. Bowles, however, always has the Bucs ready to play when the season starts. Taylor? Not so much.
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