Speaker 1: Welcome into our twenty twenty five schedule reaction show presented
Speaker 1: by Ticketmaster. Come into You from the Bucks Studio presented
Speaker 1: by Ticketmaster. Casey Phillips here with Senior writer and editor
Speaker 1: Scott Smith. Another year, another exciting schedule. I love how
Speaker 1: we all just get really excited to see it come out.
Speaker 1: We already know who we're playing, but you never know
Speaker 1: the win and the exactly the timing, the order, all
Speaker 1: of that.
Speaker 2: In the way.
Speaker 1: And we love to predict, right even though every year
Speaker 1: everyone's wrong about it. Or we love to predict what
Speaker 1: parts of the schedule are going to be harder or
Speaker 1: more interesting, or you know, the storylines that are going
Speaker 1: to be there, and we always know we're going to
Speaker 1: be wrong about a bunch of things, but it's still
Speaker 1: fun to do exactly. We love a mock draft, We
Speaker 1: love a schedule breakdown show, and so we decided we
Speaker 1: were going to go through some different segments what stands
Speaker 1: out to us about different parts of the schedule for
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers. Before we get into that, though, any kind
Speaker 1: of initial just thoughts about when you look at it
Speaker 1: as a whole.
Speaker 2: Well, this is the fiftiest schedule we've ever had.
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 3: The home part of it, at least strikes me as
Speaker 3: something that coaches would like because every single game, the
Speaker 3: first six home games are all at one pm on Sunday,
Speaker 3: and coaches love it. First of all, they love a
Speaker 3: routine that's the same every time, but they also love
Speaker 3: one o'clock games on Sunday waiting around.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they're all first six or all one pm
Speaker 3: on Sunday until you get to Atlanta on the Thursday
Speaker 3: night game, and then the time for the final game
Speaker 3: in Carolina hasn't been determined yet, but that could be
Speaker 3: a one pm game too, So yeah, I was.
Speaker 1: Like looking at if there are primetime games or challenging
Speaker 1: road trips, some of the things that are out of
Speaker 1: the norm of what especially around it happens, And you know,
Speaker 1: I do like that at least, you know, a Monday
Speaker 1: night game is kind of early in the season, and
Speaker 1: that there's not some crazy trip or something afterward that
Speaker 1: makes it more challenging than normal. Same thing with the
Speaker 1: you know, the Monday against Detroit, I mean, you know
Speaker 1: that there's not maybe as big of a difference of
Speaker 1: getting to still travel at New Orleans a little later
Speaker 1: game the next week. Again, not as brutal as some
Speaker 1: things might be after that, but then you know, to
Speaker 1: be able to be going at Buffalo and then have
Speaker 1: to turn around and go all the way to la
Speaker 1: and it'd be a Sunday night game for the West Coast.
Speaker 1: That's the game that I'm like, that's gonna be tough
Speaker 1: of you are not landing until the next day into
Speaker 1: the morning, the wee morning hours, so that's always a
Speaker 1: challenging one. But yeah, and the same thing after a
Speaker 1: Thursday night game that you get a little extra rest
Speaker 1: going into what could be a very important division game
Speaker 1: later that there isn't the normal things where you look
Speaker 1: at maybe primetime games and or travel stuff and look
Speaker 1: around and go, oh man, that's gonna be brutal. It
Speaker 1: feels kind of fair in a lot of the ways
Speaker 1: of where there weren't any areas where you just go
Speaker 1: that is gonna be brutal, which is nice.
Speaker 2: That's true.
Speaker 3: There's a couple of tough stretches there, and then we'll
Speaker 3: talk about it later. But what really jumps out to
Speaker 3: me is the way this schedule ends as the Bucks
Speaker 3: try for their record breaking fifth straight NC South title.
Speaker 1: Get that right, we'll get that at the end. Okay,
Speaker 1: So let's look at this segment one games one through four,
Speaker 1: and of course on the side of the screen you'll
Speaker 1: see it kind of cycling through some of the different
Speaker 1: segments of the schedule, so you can be reminded of
Speaker 1: what we're talking about. But segment one, tell me what
Speaker 1: stands out to you about this first set of games?
Speaker 3: Well, why the home games are road games are in
Speaker 3: white and home games are in red in that display
Speaker 3: there so you can see, right, the Buccaneers have to
Speaker 3: start the season with two games on the road, and
Speaker 3: the Bucks have won two straight they started for the
Speaker 3: last four years two and oh, which has no small
Speaker 3: part of how they've been able to pull out the
Speaker 3: division each year. If they're gonna do that, they're gonna
Speaker 3: have to go two and o on the road, and
Speaker 3: which they also did in twenty twenty two, by the way,
Speaker 3: so it can be done. And then right after that
Speaker 3: you get your game against the defending champions, and you
Speaker 3: also have your first primetime game in that block.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I also wouldn't be surprised of having a
Speaker 1: couple of road games at the beginning. Was also to
Speaker 1: help with the whole sharing a road and park area
Speaker 1: with Steinbrenner Field. That that's kind of nice to know
Speaker 1: at least those first couple of games you're not having
Speaker 1: to worry about any of the other I think there's
Speaker 1: a big concert that plays into it as well. Yep.
Speaker 3: So yeah, and looking at these four games, obviously, the
Speaker 3: one that stands out is Philadelphia. They're fresh off a
Speaker 3: really dominant win over Kansas City and Super Bowl fifty nine.
Speaker 2: I believe it was, and so they're coming in.
Speaker 3: This is actually the third year in a row that
Speaker 3: Philly's going to be here in the first month of
Speaker 3: the season, and you know, the Buccaneers have had some
Speaker 3: nice games against them. It's been a pretty good rivalry
Speaker 3: in recent years, and that obviously goes back to the
Speaker 3: first Super Bowl era where it was a huge rivalry.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: But I mean, this team, this Philadelphia team that's going
Speaker 3: to come in is loaded, and they just won the
Speaker 3: Super Bowl obviously, But I think most answer would say
Speaker 3: they have the most complete roster in the league, especially
Speaker 3: after adding Saquon Barklay, and you see Jalen Hurts there
Speaker 3: with all those weapons around him. On defense, they have
Speaker 3: Jalen Carter maybe the most dominant or one of the
Speaker 3: most dominant interior linemen in the league. And then of
Speaker 3: course last year they really rebuilt their secondary with Quinnon
Speaker 3: Mitchell and Cooper De john And of course they have
Speaker 3: the touch push play, which the Buccaneers have stopped once
Speaker 3: or twice, but it's pretty hard to stop and as
Speaker 3: of now, we don't know if that's going to be
Speaker 3: a legal play yet, but they'll bring it here if
Speaker 3: they can. Also, I guess there's a couple of other
Speaker 3: interesting games there that you might be interested in.
Speaker 2: Atlanta.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm really intrigued to see the Atlanta game Week one,
Speaker 1: knowing that this will be Michael Pennix's first season to
Speaker 1: be getting that Week one starting role. We saw him
Speaker 1: do some good things towards the end of last season,
Speaker 1: and I think that that's going to be an interesting
Speaker 1: thing to start off. Just anytime there's a new quarterback,
Speaker 1: even though he has gotten a little bit of reps
Speaker 1: this last season. First year at the Helm Week one,
Speaker 1: I always think that's interesting to watch how they respond
Speaker 1: to that, how they handle that pressure, the jitters that
Speaker 1: come with that. So I think that's going to be
Speaker 1: a game that I'm excited.
Speaker 3: And then I'll sung Todd Bowles against the Jets. It's
Speaker 3: the first time he'll play the team he used to
Speaker 3: be a head coach for since he became the Bucks
Speaker 3: head coach.
Speaker 2: Oh, very cool.
Speaker 1: I like that staut All right, segment two, Let's go
Speaker 1: into this next group, which man already you just see
Speaker 1: at at at all right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we called this part road Warriors. The Buccaneers
Speaker 3: have three of four in the ROUW and this is
Speaker 3: kind of a tough stretch.
Speaker 2: The one.
Speaker 3: You got your another primetime game in Detroit you see
Speaker 3: up there, and then you have the long trip to Seattle,
Speaker 3: and I just was going to highlight that Detroit game.
Speaker 3: You know, that's another one of these kind of recent
Speaker 3: decent rivalries. You know, you had the Buccaneers lose to
Speaker 3: Detroit in that really tight NFC Divisional game in Baker.
Speaker 2: Mayfield his first year here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then Detroit came down or we went back
Speaker 3: to Detroit in Week two of last season. Got a
Speaker 3: little bit of revenge up there. I think it's a
Speaker 3: nice matchup. You got two for one former first overall
Speaker 3: draft picks playing quarterback in Baker and Jared Goff. I
Speaker 3: mean that Lion's team last year seemed like a team
Speaker 3: of destiny.
Speaker 1: So many injuries.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we saw what Aiden Hutchinson could do in
Speaker 3: that Week two game and shortly after that or maybe
Speaker 3: I think maybe six games in he got hurt, but
Speaker 3: by that point.
Speaker 2: He already had like eight or nine sacks.
Speaker 3: So he's back that really good young player, Brian Branch
Speaker 3: that they can move all over their defense.
Speaker 2: He can play nickel, it can play safety.
Speaker 3: I think their defense, they made a couple other changes,
Speaker 3: brought in a new quarterback and just to read, and
Speaker 3: I think they have the opportunity to be pretty good
Speaker 3: if they can get a lot of guys back, and
Speaker 3: then of course on offense, you've got Jamir Gibbs. Especially
Speaker 3: after David Montgomery went down last year, he showed he
Speaker 3: could handle the load by all by himself. But now
Speaker 3: you have Montgomery back and they love to run the ball.
Speaker 3: So that's a pretty complete team all around. And it's
Speaker 3: gonna be a tough game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a tough stretch to me. And now this
Speaker 1: is always what's funny when you talk about the schedule
Speaker 1: and you say where you think a tough stretches, and
Speaker 1: it can mean travel or it can mean just what
Speaker 1: you think the quality of the opponents are going to be.
Speaker 1: That's where we have no idea how a season is
Speaker 1: going to pan out, Who's going to be injured, who's not.
Speaker 1: But you know, on paper, coming off of course the
Speaker 1: Eagles game at the end of that first segment and
Speaker 1: having to go on the road for a couple of
Speaker 1: big games and teams that look like they could be
Speaker 1: pretty talented, we have no idea what the Seahawks are
Speaker 1: going to look like the Sam Darnold and then I
Speaker 1: just like, now, this is my theme of one time
Speaker 1: on all these is just the quarterback situations of all
Speaker 1: these teams of you know, Michael Pennock's there, and then yeah,
Speaker 1: what is Seattle going to look like under him? And
Speaker 1: then of course the Saints, we are fresh off the
Speaker 1: Derek Carr announcement and there is a lot of up
Speaker 1: in the air uncertainty when it comes to that position.
Speaker 1: We know that they drafted a quarterback and how do
Speaker 1: they feel about him? And I just think that's going
Speaker 1: to be really interesting to watch of after so many
Speaker 1: years of Drew Brees. And then now you know the
Speaker 1: Derek Carr time has passed and what is this next
Speaker 1: who's he passing the torch to and what is that.
Speaker 2: Going to look like?
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe Tyler shuck. Their second round pick will be
Speaker 3: entrenched by that point because your a games, or maybe
Speaker 3: they'll still be trying to figure it out and you'll
Speaker 3: be looking at Spencer Ratler or Jake Hayner. It might
Speaker 3: be a week to week kind of thing. So even
Speaker 3: in week eight, that could be a situation very interesting.
Speaker 1: Okay, then there's a much earned bye week, which you
Speaker 1: know that's always a big part of it. Look at
Speaker 1: just smack dab in the middle of the season there,
Speaker 1: which is nice. You always wanted to maybe be a
Speaker 1: little later, but at least it's not in that first
Speaker 1: bit where you're like, oh my gosh, we've just started
Speaker 1: this thing. We don't need a buy quite yet. So
Speaker 1: whenever the buye comes we always say very needed, very helpful.
Speaker 1: But it looks like it being just smack dab in
Speaker 1: the middle. There is guess that's kind of what you
Speaker 1: ask for, kind of nice. So there's the bye week.
Speaker 1: So then now next grouping of teams. What stands out
Speaker 1: to you?
Speaker 3: Well, in the middle of that, I think you see
Speaker 3: two really prime contenders in each conference and it's back
Speaker 3: to back road trips at Buffalo and at the Los
Speaker 3: Angeles Rams. Obviously Buffalo and since Josh Allen's second or
Speaker 3: third season when he really turned the corner, have been
Speaker 3: a prime Super Bowl contender every year, just can't seem
Speaker 3: to get past the Chiefs for the most part. And
Speaker 3: then Detroit. I mean, I'm sorry the Rams. I think they.
Speaker 2: Surprise everybody a little bit. Last year.
Speaker 3: The people thought they might be in a rebuilding mode,
Speaker 3: but they really turned around. So both of those teams
Speaker 3: are defending division champions right there, and I think both
Speaker 3: of them are gonna be very much in the runnings
Speaker 3: in their respective conferences. And I just wanted to highlight
Speaker 3: the Rams game because Matthew Stafford chose to stay.
Speaker 2: There was a little bit.
Speaker 3: Of a I think he always was gonna stay, but
Speaker 3: there was a little bit of wonder if he was
Speaker 3: gonna move on and then they would really probably be
Speaker 3: in a rebuilding stage. But he's back, and he got
Speaker 3: pukin Akua. They don't no longer have Cooper Cup, but
Speaker 3: pokin Acua had kind of become the number one there anyway,
Speaker 3: and they added DeVante Adams, who I mean, it may
Speaker 3: seem like DeVante Adams is maybe past his prime or
Speaker 3: something that you know, last year with Aaron Rodgers and
Speaker 3: the Jets was nothing special, but he still had great numbers.
Speaker 2: And this is.
Speaker 3: I wonder doesn't DeVante were seventeen too. I wonder what
Speaker 3: they're gonna do with the Rams with PU seventeen there.
Speaker 3: I just thought about that. But you know, that's still
Speaker 3: those two together. And then last year they really rebuilt
Speaker 3: that defensive front starting with Jared Verse and uh so,
Speaker 3: again it's a team that's solid on both sides of
Speaker 3: the ball. And then there's a couple other interesting matchups
Speaker 3: in that segment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that is going to be a really
Speaker 1: interesting setting. And of course, as we talk about going
Speaker 1: to Buffalo, great place to play, a lot of great
Speaker 1: fan energy, and that's a big one. And like you said,
Speaker 1: that's a time yere where now you're getting into late,
Speaker 1: you know, the mid to late November of when all
Speaker 1: the playoff races are really heating up, and that's going
Speaker 1: to be a game that I think could be really
Speaker 1: significant for both teams. Even though it's not a you know,
Speaker 1: division game, it's not a conference game, it just feels
Speaker 1: like that time of year, knowing that these are two
Speaker 1: teams that are going to be really trying to make
Speaker 1: that playoff push. I think that could be a lot
Speaker 1: of fun energy and not a team that the Bucks
Speaker 1: get to face all that often, so we've only gone
Speaker 1: to them, I think once a couple of times in
Speaker 1: my time here, you know, so I think that's going
Speaker 1: to be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: I mean, you could follow up your young quarterback theme
Speaker 3: there too. With the New England Patriots and Drake May.
Speaker 3: It's really had an outstanding rookie season and they've done
Speaker 3: a lot to put pieces around him.
Speaker 1: I love in every section we do, we have a
Speaker 1: team that we're just like, hmm, that'll be interesting to
Speaker 1: watch what they're doing with their quarterback area. All right,
Speaker 1: let's go to our final section here. This is where
Speaker 1: the whole NFC South, all the kitt kaboodles feel like
Speaker 1: they're gonna kill one. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And since the seventeenth game, this doesn't work out as
Speaker 3: nice mathematically there's five games in this segment, not four,
Speaker 3: but that allows us actually to include the Saints in
Speaker 3: Week fourteen. So if you look at that schedule for there,
Speaker 3: the last five weeks are at home against New Orleans
Speaker 3: at a home, against Atlanta at Carolina at Miami, and
Speaker 3: then Carolina at home. So four of your six NFC
Speaker 3: South games in the last five weeks. And if you notice,
Speaker 3: I didn't know. It took me a while to notice this.
Speaker 3: All three of our home games against our NFC South
Speaker 3: opponents are all in that stretch there, and that seems
Speaker 3: like if this is close, that seems like an advantage
Speaker 3: to me. I mean, the Raymond James daven crowd could
Speaker 3: make a difference in how this division title race shakes out.
Speaker 2: At the end.
Speaker 1: I think this is your dream, right because sometimes teams
Speaker 1: always are still trying to figure themselves out early in
Speaker 1: the season, and sometimes it's kind of rough if you
Speaker 1: end up having a front loaded division part of your
Speaker 1: schedule when later in the season you end up being like, oh, man,
Speaker 1: I wish we were facing them now. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: think that to know that by then, I mean you
Speaker 1: are hopefully humming, you know what your team is about
Speaker 1: that with a new offensive coordinator and that kind of thing,
Speaker 1: that by then you should be hitting your stride, your
Speaker 1: sweet spot to be able to face not only so
Speaker 1: many of those division teams, but again, like you said
Speaker 1: so many at home. That's got to be if you
Speaker 1: were to build the schedule, I have to imagine that's
Speaker 1: how you'd want it to pay.
Speaker 3: For that early on with a couple of stretches, tough
Speaker 3: stretches on their own. But yeah, if you're in the
Speaker 3: running there at the end, I think it's an advantage.
Speaker 3: And if we're going to highlight a team in this
Speaker 3: last segment, I think it has to be Carolina because
Speaker 3: you played them twice and including two of the last
Speaker 3: three weeks.
Speaker 2: So the Panthers could.
Speaker 3: Be the ones standing there between the Bucks and a
Speaker 3: fifth straight division title.
Speaker 2: It's very possible.
Speaker 3: And we saw that team really come together in the
Speaker 3: second half last season when Bryce Young got back in
Speaker 3: the lineup. That was their first year under Dave Canalis.
Speaker 3: Now that program's had a little more time to develop,
Speaker 3: and not only did Bryce Young look a lot better
Speaker 3: in the second half of last year, but now he
Speaker 3: has Ted McMillan as his number one target, which is
Speaker 3: something they really needed there that can win jump balls
Speaker 3: for him and just get open and get those you know,
Speaker 3: third and seven conversions that he needs, and then you know,
Speaker 3: you get Derek Brown on the defensive side, back from injury.
Speaker 3: Their defense set a record for most points allowed last year,
Speaker 3: so they had a lot of work to do there.
Speaker 3: But they brought in a lot of veterans, and then
Speaker 3: you got Derek Brown coming back from injury and JC
Speaker 3: Horn finally getting to play long stretches without being injured.
Speaker 2: They'll probably take a big step forward.
Speaker 3: This Panthers team is one that a lot of analysts
Speaker 3: think is going to take a step forward this year.
Speaker 3: So giving them all season, you were talking about us
Speaker 3: having all season to get sort of gel Giving them
Speaker 3: all that time, that's what they might be at their peak, right,
Speaker 3: then it's going to be interesting.
Speaker 1: All right, that's going to do it for us. On
Speaker 1: this schedule release show, we hope you guys are all
Speaker 1: going in there to get your tickets figuring out which
Speaker 1: games you are going to check out. This is going
Speaker 1: to be an incredible season with a lot of really
Speaker 1: fun games, especially like we said, those at home. You
Speaker 1: are going to want to be there helping that team
Speaker 1: out as the season wraps up against all those NFC
Speaker 1: South opponents. So go snatch up those tickets and go
Speaker 1: bocks