It was quite the offseason for the Super Bowl LV champions. The Buccaneers at first thought they'd lost Tom Brady to retirement in February, before he returned several months later. By coincidence or not, head coach Bruce Arians announced his own retirement shortly thereafter. Arians' defensive coordinator, former Jets head coach Todd Bowles, now takes the reins of a team that lost its two top tight ends, all-time great Rob Gronkowski and O.J. Howard. Brady hasn't missed playing in the Super Bowl in consecutive seasons since 2014, which is a crazy streak the likes of which no football fan will see again. The Bucs have arguably the best team in the NFC, which is why they are the oddsmakers' conference favorites. It would almost be fitting to see the GOAT win another Super Bowl, his record seventh, and ride off into retirement and his nearly $400 million FOX broadcasting contract. But he's also coming off of back-to-back 40+ touchdown pass seasons, so rumors of Brady's demise are probably shortsighted.
If there's one kryptonite to Brady's regular season success in Tampa, it's the New Orleans Saints. He's 0-4 in the last two seasons against the Saints in the regular season, though the Buccaneers won in New Orleans in January 2021 on their way to a Super Bowl title. No team starts the season with a tougher set of games than Bowles' Bucs. A trip to Dallas on Sunday Night Football in Week One is difficult enough, followed by another chance to defeat the pesky Saints in the Caesars SuperDome. Even though the games are at home, wins are no certainty when facing Aaron Rodgers' Packers and Patrick Mahomes' Chiefs. Assuming Tampa at worst splits the first four games, the rest of the schedule is far from daunting. It's conceivable that other than Week 14's road test at San Francisco, the Bucs should be a decent favorite at worst in every game after Kansas City.
With the NFC South being arguably the weakest division in football, the Buccaneers should cruise to an easy division title and look like a solid bet at +340 to win the NFC. Getting to 12 wins and achieving the oddsmakers' over/under shouldn't be a problem if Brady remains upright. A Tampa-Buffalo Super Bowl matchup would be tremendous to end the season and therefore the best value might be Tampa Bay in Super Bowl head-to-head matchups paired with teams from the AFC such as Buffalo or the LA Chargers.
- More NFL futures:'SportsLine Projectio n Model's best bets
Below, you'll find the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2022 schedule, win total and more futures odds from Caesars Sportsbook, followed by picks from top SportsLine NFL analysts Larry Hartstein and R.J. White.