The Buccaneers face the Bengals in a season opener featuring two quarterbacks seeking bounce back seasons.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers open the season with aspirations of returning to the top of the NFC South Division and the postseason after missing out on both goals for the first time in the Todd Bowles era last season.
With an offseason and preseason full of changes and adjustments behind them, the Buccaneers (0-0) open the season on the road for the third time in the last four years and second consecutive season when they take on the Cincinnati Bengals (0-0) at 1 p.m. ET at Paycor Stadium.
Under Bowles Tampa Bay has been stellar on opening weekend. Since 2022 the Buccaneers are 4-0 in Week 1, including a 23-20 win on the road against NFC South rival Atlanta last season. They have also notched Week 1 road wins against the Dallas Cowboys (2022) and Minnesota Vikings (2023). In those four wins the Buccaneers have averaged 24.75 points and have given up an average of 15 points.
Tampa Bay leads the all-time series 7-6 but lost the last meeting in Bowles’ first year as head coach in 2022 (34-23). In his career Bowles has never beaten the Bengals (0-2), with his other loss coming at home in Week 1 of the 2016 season as the New York Jets’ head coach.
Slow Starting Bengals
More often than not, the season opener has proven to be a stumbling block for the Bengals under head coach Zac Taylor, who is heading into his eighth season in Cincinnati. Since Taylor took over in 2019 the Bengals are 2-5 in the first week of the season and 1-3 when playing at home in Week 1.
Cincinnati has not won a Week 1 home game since 2021, when they defeated the Vikings 27-24 and eventually advanced to Super Bowl LVI before losing to the Los Angeles Rams. The Bengals had lost four straight Week 1 games before breaking the streak last season with a 17-16 win on the road against the Cleveland Browns.
During Taylor’s tenure Cincinnati has averaged just 15.7 points per game and have allowed 20 points per game in Week 1.
Contract vs. Comeback
An intriguing storyline heading into the matchup will be two former No. 1 overall draft picks looking to return to dominance this season in Tampa Bay’s Baker Mayfield and Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow.
Although he started all 17 games for the Buccaneers, Mayfield fought through multiple injuries throughout the majority of the season, completing 63.2 percent of his passes for 3,693 yards, 26 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
Coming into this season Mayfield is healthy and recently signed a three-year, $165 million contract after somewhat contentious negotiations prior to the deal. With the extension out of the way Mayfield will be motivated to prove signing the biggest contract in franchise history was worth it for Tampa Bay. In three seasons with the Buccaneers, Mayfield has started 51 of a possible 51 games, has completed 66.3 percent of his passes for 12,237 yards, 95 touchdowns and 37 interceptions.
Burrow is looking for a bounceback season after starting just eight games for the Bengals, who finished 6-11 and missed the playoffs for the third consecutive year. Burrow’s season was cut short thanks to a turf toe injury suffered in Week 2. He went on to miss the next nine games before returning in Week 13, leading the Bengals to a 3-3 record to finish the season.
In his last three seasons Burrow has started 35 games, completed 68.7 percent of his passes for 9,036 yards, 75 touchdowns and 20 interceptions.
Coaching Hot Seat
Both Bowles and Taylor have been popular choices for head coaches facing the most pressure heading into the season.
Despite leading the Buccaneers to three straight NFC South Division titles and three consecutive playoff appearances prior to last season, missing the playoffs and a disappointing 2-7 finish after the bye had many questioning the decision to bring Bowles back for this season. Bowles has a .515 winning percentage in the regular season but is just 1-3 in the postseason.
Like Bowles, the retaining of Taylor as the Cincinnati head coach for this season came as a surprise.
Although he led the Bengals to just six wins in his first two seasons, Taylor guided Cincinnati to the Super Bowl in his third season and an AFC Conference Championship game appearance the following season, but hasn’t been able to recapture that success since.
The Bengals are favored by 3.5 points and the point total for the game is 50.5.
