The Tampa Bay Buccaneers travel to take on the Minnesota Vikings in an NFC Conference showdown featuring two teams that made the playoffs last season. The Buccaneers will have a new quarterback following the retirement of Tom Brady and have announced Baker Mayfield as the starting quarterback while the Minnesota Vikings bring back the majority of the talent they had on last year’s playoff team. Let’s take a look at how these teams match up against each other heading into week 1 of the NFL season.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished the 2023 NFL preseason with a record of 2-1 with wins on the road against the New York Jets by a score of 13-6 and at home against the Baltimore Ravens by a score of 26-20 while losing at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers by a score of 17-27. Tampa Bay finished the 2022 NFL season with a record of 8-9 which led to a NFC South Division Championship for the 2^nd year in a row and the Buccaneers making the playoffs for the 3^rd consecutive season. 

The Buccaneers lost at home in the Wild Card round against the Dallas Cowboys by a score of 14-31 in what was Tom Brady’s last game in the NFL. This season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers enter the year with an over/under win total of 6.5 wins and based on Vegas odds are projected to finish in 4^th place in the NFC South as the Buccaneers are +540 to win the NFC South this year.

Minnesota finished with a record of 0-3 in the preseason with losses at home against the Tennessee Titans by a score of 16-24 and the Arizona Cardinals by a score of 17-18 while losing on the road against the Seattle Seahawks by a score of 13-24. The Vikings finished the 2022 NFL season with a record of 13-4 which led to a NFC North Championship for the first time since the 2017 NFL season and Minnesota making the playoffs for the first time since the 2019 NFL season. Minnesota lost in the Wild Card round at home against the New York Giants by a score of 24-31. This year, the Minnesota Vikings enter the season with an over/under win total of 8.5 wins and based on Vegas odds are projected to be the 2^nd best team in the NFC North only behind the Detroit Lions.

BookMaker has the Minnesota Vikings listed as 6-point favorites at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday in week 1 of the NFL season. Tampa Bay has won seven of the last ten and has gone 7-3 ATS in those matchups while Minnesota has won two of the last three games and has gone 2-1 ATS in those contests. Tampa Bay finished last season with a record of 4-13-1 ATS overall, 2-6 ATS on the road, and 0-4 ATS as an underdog while the Minnesota Vikings finished with a record of 7-10-1 ATS overall, 4-6 ATS at home, and 6-6-1 ATS as a favorite.

Minnesota is expected to finish with a better record this season as they enter the year with an over/under win total of 8.5 games while Tampa Bay has an over/under win total of 6.5 games. The Vikings have been the better team most recently in the series, winning two of the last three games while going 2-1 ATS in those matchups. The Buccaneers were the worst team in the NFL at covering the spread last season as Tampa Bay went 4-13-1 ATS overall and I look for that trend to continue in this matchup which is why I am taking the Minnesota Vikings -6 at home in week 1 of the NFL season on BookMaker.