Tom Brady's return threw a wrench in the plans of NFL schedule-makers
The 2022 NFL schedule is set to be released on Thursday at 8 p.m. EST on the NFL Network. While the Tampa Bay Buccaneers know which teams they'll be matching up with during the upcoming season, they aren't quite sure when those games will be outside of the trek to Germany to play the Seattle Seahawks on November 13.
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The Buccaneers will face off with seven teams that made the playoffs last year; Green Bay, Kansas City, Dallas, Arizona, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and San Fransisco. Other opponents like New Orleans, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh won't be slouches either and could also contend for the postseason.
Tampa Bay's schedule wasn't as exciting a few months ago before Tom Brady elected to unretire. Now that he's back, the NFC is as stacked as ever and the league's schedule-makers have had to go back to the drawing board.
During a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, NFL Broadcasting Chief Howard Katz conceded that though Brady's move brought more competition to the conference, it also forced the league to re-evaluate its potential schedule.
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“When Tom Brady retired, we were concerned about the strength of the NFC package because there were so many terrific Tampa Bay games we were looking at,” Katz said. “Then a month later he un-retires and we sort of started all over again.”
While Tampa Bay was still in a position to compete without Brady, there was definitely an expectation of a dropoff, which would've led to more early games on Sunday afternoons. However, now that one of the faces in the league is back in pewter and red, the Buccaneers will likely be a consistent presence in primetime when the schedule is officially unveiled on Thursday.
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