A new Pewter Report Roundtable debuts every Tuesday on PewterReport.com. Each week, the Pewter Reporters tackle another tough question. This week’s prompt: Which opposing player on the Bucs schedule will be the biggest threat?
Scott Reynolds: Bills QB Josh Allen Has Been A Thorn In The Bucs’ Side
There are a lot of formidable foes on Tampa Bay’s 2025 schedule that I could’ve chosen. Philadelphia running back Saquon Barkley and Detroit defensive end Aidan Hutchinson immediately come to mind. Barkley was an All-Pro had a record-breaking season for the Super Bowl champion Eagles. Hutchinson, a Pro Bowler, had a fantastic 4.5-sack game against the Bucs in Week 2 before breaking his leg. He racked up 7.5 sacks in five games. But the best player the Bucs will face in 2025 is Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen, who is the league’s reigning MVP.
Bills QB Josh Allen – Photo by: USA Today
In my opinion, Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield had just as good of a season – if not better – than Allen did statistically. Allen passed for 3,731 yards while completing 68.3% of his passes with 28 touchdowns with just six interceptions. Mayfield threw for 4,500 yards while completing 71.4% of his passes with 41 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. But when it came to rushing production, Allen proved once again to be an elite dual threat quarterback with 531 yards and 12 rushing TDs on the ground with a 5.2-yard average. Mayfield ran for 378 yards and a 6.3-yard average, but just three rushing scores.
Allen has had two really good games against the Bucs, most recently in a 24-18 win in Buffalo in 2023. He passed for 324 yards while completing 77.5% of his passes with two touchdowns and one interception. He also ran for 41 yards and another score. In 2021 in a 33-27 overtime loss at Tampa Bay, Allen passed for 308 yards with two TDs and one INT, while also rushing for 109 yards and a score while averaging 9.1 yards on the ground.
Todd Bowles’ defense has struggled to stop or even contain Allen in previous games, and he seems to get even better each year. The Bucs make another trip to Buffalo in Week 11 this year and will get a third crack at trying to slow down the league MVP. That seems like the toughest task on the schedule this year from an opposing player standpoint.
Matt Matera: Puka Nacua Causes Matchup Issues
The Rams have been in a thorn in the Bucs’ side over the past couple of years. Beating Los Angeles has been difficult enough, and that was even before Tampa Bay had to deal with wide receiver Puka Nacua, who is entering his third season for Sean McVay. Nacua is a wide receiver the Rams can lineup anywhere and he has shown the ability to get open.
Rams WR Puka Nacua – Photo by: USA Today
Tampa Bay added a lot more players to its secondary, which now deploys Zyon McCollum, Jamel Dean and rookies Benjamin Morrison and Jacob Parrish. Can the rookies hang with Nacua? Where will the Rams line him up to give them the best advantage – in the slot or outside? Add in the fact that the Rams also brought in Pro Bowl receiver Davante Adams and the Bucs may have fits trying to stop L.A.’s passing game, which is led by veteran Matthew Stafford.
Nacua burst onto the scene with 1,486 yards as a rookie two seasons ago and came 10 yards away from reaching 1,000 yards last season despite only playing 11 games due to injury. If healthy, he’s a top receiver in the game. Nacua will be a big-time matchup challenge for the Bucs when they play on Sunday night football in late November.
Bailey Adams: Drake London Has Become A Problem For The Bucs
This is a sneaky pick considering the Bucs see him every year and there are some other superstar-type players on the schedule in 2025, but Drake London has proven to be a problem for Todd Bowles’ defense in the past. So, when Tampa Bay matches up with Atlanta in both Week 1 and Week 15, the team’s new-look secondary will once again have its work cut out for it with the Falcons’ top receiver.
Falcons WR Drake London and Bucs NCB Tykee Smith – Photo by: USA Today
London has gone over 120 yards in three of his six career games against the Bucs. Over the last three meetings between the two teams, he has two games with 150+ yards. He has found ways to take over games, and Michael Penix Jr. will surely look his way early and often given how much he’s won against the Tampa Bay secondary in recent years.
Oddly enough, the Bucs may have to be more concerned with London when they see him in the season opener, as that game is in Atlanta. All three of those games with 120+ receiving yards against Tampa Bay have come at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with a 10-catch, 172-yard performance there in 2023 and a 12-catch, 154-yard night in 2024 that also saw him haul in a touchdown.
The Bucs have had a better time dealing with London when hosting the Falcons over the last three years — for whatever reason. Maybe it’s coincidence, maybe there’s something to it. Either way, though, there’s no letting your guard down against this guy. He has more catches and receiving yards against the Bucs than any other team in his career, and that’s something Bowles and his defense will have to deal with twice this year as they try to stave off the Falcons and retain the NFC South crown.
Josh Queipo: Matthew Stafford Is Looking For Glory
Great quarterbacks with one Super Bowl are fine. But Matthew Stafford is looking to finish his career with multiple titles to cement his Hall of Fame case. And we know that the Bucs have struggled against Sean McVay quarterbacks for almost the entirety of Todd Bowles’ tenure with the Bucs. Former Rams receiver Cooper Kupp spoke recently on how far out in front of defenses the McVay offense has been since the mid-teens.
#Seahawks WR Cooper Kupp with an insightful, detailed answer to @StacyRost’s question about defenses getting smarter & more complex in recent years. Cooper was on Rams teams that influenced how offense looks today & how defenses have had to adjust.
(🎥 @SeattleSports) pic.twitter.com/Dv0h4HJTiB
— Dugar, Michael-Shawn (@MikeDugar) June 8, 2025
One beneficiary of that system has been Stafford. In three games for the Rams, including the infamous 2021 Divisional Round matchup, he has hit the Bucs for 68 completions on 103 attempts for 874 yards and seven touchdowns to no interceptions while averaging 8.5 yards per attempt. Meanwhile the Rams have scored 76 points in those matchups – an average of 25.3 points per game. Two out of those three contests saw Los Angeles victorious while hitting the 30-point threshold.
But in their most recent matchup in week eight of the 2022 season Stafford struggled while the Rams lost 13-16 to the Bucs. But an injury may have hampered his play as he would only play one more game the rest of that season. Despite being three years older, the now 37-year-old Stafford is coming off of a trip to the playoffs. He has a rising Puka Nacua and a still very good Davante Adams. As such, the Bucs should watch out for Stafford.
Adam Slivon: Bucs Will Not Have It Easy Against Saquon Barkley This Time Around
Back when the Bucs and Eagles squared off in Week 4 of last season, the eventual 2024 Super Bowl Champions had yet to fully hit their stride. Playing in Tampa Bay, Philadelphia lost 33-16 in a game that saw their offense limited without top wide receivers A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith. As a result, Saquon Barkley did not get anything going on the ground before a late 59-yard run, finishing the game with a season-low 10 carries for 84 rushing yards. Facing them yet again this year, the Bucs’ defense will not have it as easy.
Eagles RB Saquon Barkley Photo by: USA Today
Barkley ran through the rest of the NFL last season, finishing the season with 345 carries for 2,005 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns, averaging 5.8 yards per carry. He truly opened things up for the offense, recording five games of over 150 rushing yards in the regular season and added 499 rushing yards over four playoff games for good measure. It was such a successful season last year for the recently named Madden 26 cover athlete that he had a chance to break Eric Dickerson’s single season rushing record against his former team in Week 18 but decided to sit out instead.
What does all of this mean for the Bucs? Well, expect them to have a much tougher test against an Eagles offense led by Jalen Hurts, Barkley, Brown, and Smith. Having more balance will give the superstar running back more favorable chances to run through Tampa Bay’s front seven when they see each other in Week 4 again this season. While Todd Bowles’ unit usually fares well stifling run games, it takes a tribe to contain the undisputed best running back in the league.