Tampa Bay Buccaneers will play on Christmas Day for first time in franchise history
Thursday evening marked the release of the 2022 NFL schedule and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a tough slate of games. The Buccaneers open the season with their first two games on the road (@ Dallas, @ New Orleans) before returning home to host two of the top teams in the league, Green Bay and Kansas City. In total, they'll face seven teams that made the playoffs last season and a few other teams that almost qualified for the postseason.
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The team has three games on Sunday Night Football, a Monday night matchup with New Orleans, and a Thursday night test with the Baltimore Ravens.
For the first time in franchise history, Tampa Bay is scheduled to compete on Christmas Day. The team will travel to Arizona for a road battle with an NFC Playoff Contender on Sunday Night Football.
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Not only will this be the first time that the Buccaneers play on Christmas, but it'll also be the first time that Tom Brady and Kyler Murray, two of the top quarterbacks in the NFL, face off on the football field. While they have drastically different playstyles, both signal-callers have the ability to take over a game at any given moment.
Considering this game falls in week 16, three weeks prior to the end of the regular season, it's very possible that there will be playoff stakes on the line for each team. Whether those stakes will be fighting to get into the postseason or an opportunity to clinch home-field advantage remains to be seen.
Either way, this will be a fun contest to watch. Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins was suspended for the first six games of the season, so that means he'll be back on the field and back into a rhythm by the time Tampa Bay arrives in Glendale.
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