The Buccaneers have about a 20% chance of making the playoffs

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers aren’t favorites to make the playoffs by any means, but they have plenty of chances to get there despite a somewhat disappointing start to the season.

According to numberFire, they have a 16.8% chance of making the playoffs. Football Outsiders gives them a slightly more generous 21.1% chance of getting to the postseason, buoyed in part by a very positive view of the Bucs’ passing offense.

Those odds aren’t great, of course, but that’s what you get when you go 2-2 against a fairly weak schedule. The positive news here is that ~20% is still a pretty big chance, compared to the odds the Bucs got in previous years. It’s not that common for them to have a realistic chance of making the playoffs at any point past week four.

Still, the Bucs can’t afford too many more losses if they really want to make it to the postseason for the first time in a decade. As per usual, a 9-7 record is probably not going to be enough, and even 10-6 could see them shut out. But anything better would necessitate losing only three more games, at the most, and that’s highly unlikely.