{"id":388665,"date":"2026-01-03T09:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T09:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/388665\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T09:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T09:08:08","slug":"buccaneers-playoff-picture-how-tampa-bay-can-clinch-nfc-south-title-in-week-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/388665\/","title":{"rendered":"Buccaneers playoff picture: How Tampa Bay can clinch NFC South title in Week 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> have been a staple of the NFL playoffs since 2020. That’s when Tom Brady led to them to an NFC wild-card berth and an eventual victory in Super Bowl 55 over the Chiefs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Bucs need a win and some help to make it six straight trips to the NFC tournament and five consecutive NFC South titles. Like in Brady’s final season in 2022, the Bucs (7-9) will attempt to again be a home playoff team at 8-9.<\/p>\n

Here’s breaking down how Tampa Bay needs a win at home over Carolina (Saturday, 4:30 p.m. ET, ESPN\/ABC) and help to keep the postseason streaks alive:<\/p>\n

MORE WEEK 18 NFL:<\/p>\n

NFL playoff bracket 2026<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at the current potential initial matchups for this year’s playoffs:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Buccaneers playoff picture<\/p>\n

The Buccaneers are the No. 11 team in the NFC overall standings, but the No. 8 Vikings<\/a> (8-8, No. 9 Lions<\/a> (8-8) and No. 10 Cowboys<\/a> (7-8-1) are all eliminated with the Bears<\/a> and Eagles<\/a> locking down the respective NFC North and NFC East titles.<\/p>\n

Because Tampa Bay can finish at best 9-8, it cannot earn a wild card with No. 7 Green Bay guaranteed to finish at least 9-7-1. The NFC South is the Bucs’ sole playoff path.<\/p>\n

SeedTeamRecord1Seattle Seahawks*13-32Chicago Bears*11-53Philadelphia Eagles*11-54Carolina Panthers8-85San Francisco 49ers*12-46Los Angeles Rams*11-57Green Bay Packers*9-6-18Minnesota Vikings – eliminated8-89Detroit Lions\u00a0– eliminated8-810Dallas Cowboys\u00a0– eliminated7-8-111Tampa Bay Buccaneers7-912Atlanta Falcons\u00a0– eliminated7-913New Orleans Saints\u00a0– eliminated6-1014Washington Commanders\u00a0– eliminated4-1215Arizona Cardinals\u00a0– eliminated3-1316New York Giants\u00a0– eliminated3-13<\/p>\n

*=clinched playoff spot<\/p>\n

NFC South standings<\/p>\n

The Buccaneers remain in second place a game behind the Panthers<\/a>, but now they’re tied with the third-place Falcons<\/a> in terms of wins and losses. The Buccaneers have the common-games tiebreaker keeping them ahead of the Falcons, who are eliminated from NFC South title contention.<\/p>\n

RankTeamRecord1Carolina Panthers8-82Tampa Bay Buccaneers7-93Atlanta Falcons\u00a0– eliminated7-94New Orleans Saints – eliminated6-10Buccaneers clinching scenarios<\/p>\n

The Buccaneers need to first beat the Panthers on Saturday afternoon to even the records at 8-9. But the Falcons have thrown a wrench into making Tampa Bay vs. Carolina the de facto NFC South championship game.<\/p>\n

The Falcons cannot win the division themselves, but if the Buccaneers beat the Panthers, the outcome of their home game vs. the Saints<\/a> will determine whether the Buccaneers or Panthers win the division.<\/p>\n

Should the Buccaneers and Falcons win, then it’s a three-way tie atop the division at 8-9. That tiebreaker advantage goes to the Panthers because they would have gone 3-1 against the other two teams, with the Bucs at 2-2 and the Falcons at 1-3.<\/p>\n

Should the Buccaneers and Falcons lose, however, then it’s only the Buccaneers and Panthers tied at 8-9, with the Falcons fading a game behind at 7-10, falling into last place behind the also 7-10 Saints. In the case of a two-way tie, the Buccaneers would edge the Panthers for the division title thanks to the common-games tiebreaker.<\/p>\n

The Buccaneers need to take care of their business and in a twist, then need to root hard for the Saints on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been a staple of the NFL playoffs since 2020. That’s when Tom Brady…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-388665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}