Buccaneers' Season Opener Revealed Ahead of NFL Schedule Release

The NFL schedule release is set for 8 p.m. EST on Thursday, but little things trickle out before then. On the day of the release, games are coming out one by one, and one of the most notable games on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' schedule has been revealed.

The season opener for any team sets the tone, and the Bucs know this well — they haven't lost a season opener since 2020. That being said, it looks like this season opener will be a tough one, as the Bucs will head on the road to play the Cincinnati Bengals, per NFL insider Jordan Schultz.

Bucs set to play Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1

This will be the fourth time in the past five seasons that the Buccaneers have started out the year on the road. They previously played the Atlanta Falcons on the road last year, the Minnesota Vikings on the road in 2023 and then the Dallas Cowboys on the road in 2022 the year before that. The Bucs won all of those games, and luckily for them, the Bengals tend to struggle to open the season.

The Bengals have won their season opener just once since 2021, defeating the Cleveland Browns to open the year last year. They tend to start slow at the beginning of the season, so the Bucs could be at an advantage in their first game with their own strong opening matchup record in recent years. That being said, it should still be a tough matchup — the Bengals will have quarterback Joe Burrow back in action, and Tampa Bay's new-look secondary will immediately be put to the test with Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to contend with.

The last time the Buccaneers played in Cincinnati in a regular-season game was all the way back in 2018, when the Bengals beat the Bucs 37-34. Tampa Bay also lost to the Bengals at home in the regular season in 2022, so the Bucs will hope to change that growing trend during their season opener this year.

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