Tampa Bay Buccaneers Week 16 playoff picture: Bucs move up in the NFC
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are no longer at the bottom among NFC division leaders after their 40-17 win over the Los Angeles Chargers last Sunday. The Bucs moved up to the 3 seed in the NFC, leapfrogging the NFC West-leading Los Angeles Rams, who supplanted the Seattle Seahawks for the division lead. The teams are […]
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are no longer at the bottom among NFC division leaders after their 40-17 win over the Los Angeles Chargers last Sunday.
The Bucs moved up to the 3 seed in the NFC, leapfrogging the NFC West-leading Los Angeles Rams, who supplanted the Seattle Seahawks for the division lead. The teams are tied at 8-6, but the Bucs own the tiebreaker by virtue of better overall conference record.
Per the NFL.com playoff picture engine, the Bucs have an 83% chance of making the playoffs. That would jump up to 93% with a win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night. This is how the NFC standings look through 15 weeks:
The Buccaneers almost got a favor on Monday night from the Las Vegas Raiders, but they couldn't quite pull the upset over the Atlanta Falcons. As such, Atlanta sits at 7-7 and just one game behind Tampa Bay. Thus, the Bucs still control their own destiny to the playoffs, but still with no margin of error. Atlanta benched Kirk Cousins in favor of rookie Michael Penix, Jr., so we'll see if the rookie will have rookie mistakes and give the New York Giants a chance at an upset on Sunday.
On the wild card front, Washington edged New Orleans 20-19 to move to 9-5. Bucs fans should be hoping they lose to Philadelphia to keep that avenue to the playoffs as an option. The Commanders and Falcons play next week, which will help Tampa Bay one way or another.
Here are the remaining schedules for Tampa Bay, Atlanta, and Washington:
Tampa Bay
- at Dallas
- vs. Carolina
- vs. New Orleans
Atlanta
- vs. New York Giants
- at Washington
- vs. Carolina
Washington
- vs. Philadelphia
- vs. Atlanta
- at Dallas
