Tampa Bay Buccaneers Postseason Betting Analysis

Previous Betting News

Not sure if you heard, but someone named Tom Brady signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in NFL free agency. To say that has changed the outlook of the 2020 Bucs is understating things just a bit. Here’s an overview of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their NFL Odds as it stands.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL Odds After Free Agency Week 1

2019 recap

Tampa Bay finished 7-9 in Coach Bruce Arians’ first season. Jameis Winston led the NFL with 5,109 passing yards and was second with 33 touchdown passes but also led the league by far with 30 picks – the first-quarterback to ever have a 30-TD, 30-interception season. Fittingly, Winston’s final pass as a Buccaneer was a pick-six in a Week 17 28-22 overtime home loss to Atlanta. The game ended abruptly when Falcons defensive back Deion Jones broke in front of intended receiver Cameron Brate and skipped up the sideline to set off an end-zone celebration.

“It smells as bad as it could possibly smell,” Arians said of his team missing out an opportunity to finish .500 after a 2-6 start. The Bucs have missed the playoffs 12 years in a row, surpassed only by the Cleveland Browns. Winston is still on the market as a free agent after this writing as the Bucs are moving ahead with Tom Brady. The Bucs have never signed one of their starting quarterbacks to a second contract.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Offseason moves

Brady walks into a pretty good situation as the Bucs have arguably the best receiving duo in the NFL in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, who both topped 1,000 yards a year ago. Evans missed the final few games of last season due to a strained hamstring but still had 67 catches for 1,157 yards and eight scores.

The 26-year-old has been spectacular since being drafted as the No. 7 overall pick in 2014, joining Randy Moss as the only players in NFL history to record over 1,000 receiving yards through the first six seasons of their career. Evans also broke Tampa Bay’s previous franchise record for career receptions (430) with 462. Godwin was a breakout star in 2019, finishing third in the NFL in receiving yards with 1,333 and also tied for fourth in touchdowns (nine) despite missing his final two games with a strained hamstring.

The Bucs are a bit questionable at running back with Ronald Jones and Peyton Barber. Brady has leaned heavily on his running backs since turning 40 in 2017. Over that span, he has completed an NFL-high 364 passes to running backs. Buccaneers RBs have only caught 3 TD passes over that same span, tied for the fewest in the NFL.

The Bucs kept star pass-rusher Shaquil Barrett off the market by slapping the franchise tag on him. Barrett led the NFL with 19.5 sacks in 2019, setting a new single-season franchise record in his first year with the team. Barrett finished the season strong, with seven sacks in his last five games, including another three-sack game in the season finale against Atlanta that allowed him to pass Arizona’s Chandler Jones for the NFL sack title.

In all, Barrett finished with 58 tackles, 19 tackles for loss, 37 quarterback hits, one interception, two passes defensed and six forced fumbles to go with those 19.5 sacks. Those 37 QB hits tied him with Green Bay’s Za’Darius Smith for the league lead in that category as well.

The Bucs used the “non-exclusive” franchise tag on Barrett, meaning he can negotiate with other teams but Tampa Bay retains a right to match any contract offer. If Barrett does sign with another team and the offer is not matched, that team must send two first-round draft picks to the Buccaneers.

Tampa Bay got some protection for Brady is signing free agent offensive lineman Joe Haeg, formerly of the Colts, to a one-year, $2.3 million contract. The 2016 fifth-rounder appeared in all 16 games for the Colts last year.

The team also resigned Jason Pierre-Paul to a two-year deal. Despite playing in just 10 games with eight starts last year, Pierre-Paul produced 8.5 sacks, second only to Barrett’s league-leading 19.5 among Buccaneer defenders. Pierre-Paul missed the first six games of 2019 due to a neck injury suffered in a spring car accident.

2020 opponents

Home: Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, Green Bay Packers, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, Minnesota Vikings.

Away: Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, Raiders, New York Giants.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Odds to win Super Bowl 55

The Bucs are +1200 Odds to win the Super Bowl in their own stadium next February. No team has ever reached a Super Bowl held in its own stadium.

Previous Betting News

The 2016 season was a very good one for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with many people taking this team as a potential NFL Betting dark horse last season. The promise of two years ago never panned out, though, as the Bucs slipped to a 5-11 record in a vastly improved NFC South. The question now is whether Jameis Winston and crew can get back to where they were a couple of years back, or whether they are going to continue to slide.

Coach Dirk Koetter is probably on a very short leash and will be starting the season on the hot seat. The bad news for the coach is that the Bucs have a brutal schedule in the opening weeks of the 2018 NFL season. Let’s take a look at some of their biggest match-ups of the coming season.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2018 NFL Betting Guide

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Key Players

Top Games in 2018 Season

Week 2 vs Philadelphia Eagles

After getting the season started with a visit to New Orleans, things really start to get tough for the Buccaneers. Week 2 will see them host the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, a team with the potential to be even stronger than they were last season.

This is the sort of early test that can go a long way towards showing us what a team is all about. Will the Buccaneers be able to rise up and take a real shot at the champs, or will they buckle under the weight of playing a superior opponent? If it’s the former, it could give this team a huge confidence boost that carries them forward the rest of the way.

Week 3 vs Pittsburgh Steelers

It’s out of the frying pan and into the fire for the Bucs as they go from playing the best team in the NFC to a Monday night game against arguably the best team in the AFC. Further compounding the issue for Tampa Bay is the fact that the Steelers very often play their best football in prime time.

They have a ridiculously good record in Monday night games, which does not bode well for the Bucs. The one bonus for Tampa is that both of these early season games are at home, and you have to feel that they will be happy with a split given the quality of the competition.

Week 16 at Dallas Cowboys

The start of the season is tough for the Buccaneers, and it will finish how it began, with a pair of games that will test the true mettle of this team. The Bucs will head to Dallas a couple of days before Christmas hoping that they are still in the playoff picture at that point.

If Tampa is to be in the hunt for postseason football, these are the types of games that they are going to need to win. While this is undoubtedly a big one, it is the final game of the season that may prove to be the most important.

Week 17 vs Atlanta Falcons

The Buccaneers were the odd man out in what was a very good NFC South last season. Much like last year, most of the divisional games are going to come in the second half of the season, which means that the positioning can change very quickly.

The Falcons are the favorites and may have clinched a playoff spot by this point, but the Bucs may very well be alive and in need of a win in this one. This could well prove to be the game that decides who is in and who is out in the South.

Rest of the Schedule