{"id":650187,"date":"2026-01-03T08:09:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T08:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/650187\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T08:09:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T08:09:13","slug":"buccaneers-playoff-picture-how-tampa-bay-can-clinch-nfc-south-title-in-week-18-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/650187\/","title":{"rendered":"Buccaneers playoff picture: How Tampa Bay can clinch NFC South title in Week 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buccaneers playoff picture: How Tampa Bay can clinch NFC South title in Week 18<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

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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

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\"\"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

Seed<\/p>\n

Team<\/p>\n

Record<\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

Seattle Seahawks*<\/p>\n

13-3<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Chicago Bears*<\/p>\n

11-5<\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Eagles*<\/p>\n

11-5<\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Carolina Panthers<\/p>\n

8-8<\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

San Francisco 49ers*<\/p>\n

12-4<\/p>\n

6<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Rams*<\/p>\n

11-5<\/p>\n

7<\/p>\n

Green Bay Packers*<\/p>\n

9-6-1<\/p>\n

8<\/p>\n

Minnesota Vikings – eliminated<\/p>\n

8-8<\/p>\n

9<\/p>\n

Detroit Lions\u00a0– eliminated<\/p>\n

8-8<\/p>\n

10<\/p>\n

Dallas Cowboys\u00a0– eliminated<\/p>\n

7-8-1<\/p>\n

11<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/p>\n

7-9<\/p>\n

12<\/p>\n

Atlanta Falcons\u00a0– eliminated<\/p>\n

7-9<\/p>\n

13<\/p>\n

New Orleans Saints\u00a0– eliminated<\/p>\n

6-10<\/p>\n

14<\/p>\n

Washington Commanders\u00a0– eliminated<\/p>\n

4-12<\/p>\n

15<\/p>\n

Arizona Cardinals\u00a0– eliminated<\/p>\n

3-13<\/p>\n

16<\/p>\n

New York Giants\u00a0– eliminated<\/p>\n

3-13<\/p>\n

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

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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

Rank<\/p>\n

Team<\/p>\n

Record<\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

Carolina Panthers<\/p>\n

8-8<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/p>\n

7-9<\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Atlanta Falcons\u00a0– eliminated<\/p>\n

7-9<\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

New Orleans Saints – eliminated<\/p>\n

6-10<\/p>\n

Buccaneers 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

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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

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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":"Buccaneers playoff picture: How Tampa Bay can clinch NFC South title in Week 18 originally appeared on The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[390,254,211,260,391,346,230,113,7,41,345,58,259,55,56,1591,6,109,252,261,704,250,2597,2596,1369,111],"class_list":{"0":"post-650187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-arizona-cardinals","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-buccaneers","11":"tag-carolina-panthers","12":"tag-chicago-bears","13":"tag-chiefs","14":"tag-cowboys","15":"tag-detroit-lions","16":"tag-football","17":"tag-green-bay","18":"tag-green-bay-packers","19":"tag-los-angeles-rams","20":"tag-minnesota-vikings","21":"tag-new-orleans-saints","22":"tag-new-york-giants","23":"tag-nfc-south","24":"tag-nfl","25":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","26":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","27":"tag-seattle-seahawks","28":"tag-tampa-bay","29":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","30":"tag-tampabay","31":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers","32":"tag-tom-brady","33":"tag-washington-commanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115830153040690399","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}