The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 18 matchup between the Bucs and Panthers.
Find a breakdown of every Week 18 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.
| Tampa Bay | Rank | @ | Carolina | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -5.5 | Spread | 5.5 | ||
| 21.5 | Implied Total | 16.0 | ||
| 21.2 | 19 | Points/Gm | 14.8 | 31 |
| 20.3 | 9 | Points All./Gm | 25.4 | 30 |
| 61.4 | 25 | Plays/Gm | 65.4 | 8 |
| 64.4 | 25 | Opp. Plays/Gm | 59.5 | 2 |
| 5.2 | 15 | Off. Yards/Play | 4.1 | 32 |
| 5.5 | 25 | Def. Yards/Play | 5 | 7 |
| 41.71% | 19 | Rush% | 39.77% | 25 |
| 58.29% | 14 | Pass% | 60.23% | 8 |
| 38.12% | 5 | Opp. Rush % | 50.32% | 32 |
| 61.88% | 28 | Opp. Pass % | 49.68% | 1 |
Tampa Bay Playoff Scenarios: The Buccaneers win the NFC South with a win.
This is the cleanest way for Tampa Bay to make the postseason.
They can also win the division with a tie and a New Orleans loss or tie.
The Buccaneers can also still end up as the No. 7 seed if the tie is paired with a New Orleans win, a Seattle loss, and a Green Bay loss or tie.
Elimination Alert: Carolina has been eliminated from the postseason.
This is a team coming off being shut out in Jacksonville last week in a game that saw their owner throw a drink at a fan.
This season is mercifully coming to an end for the 2023 version of this organization.
From a fantasy perspective, we have not been able to latch onto much here.
If throwing a few darts in fantasy, the wide receivers are the most appealing aspect of this matchup, but the Carolina wideouts have not offered much from a ceiling perspective.
Quarterback
Baker Mayfield: Mayfield picked a poor time to have a dud, but he was able to salvage his fantasy day in garbage time.
Mayfield was 10-of-17 (58.8%) for 89 yards (5.2 Y/A) and an interception through three quarters on Sunday.
In the fourth quarter down 20 points, he went 12-of-16 passing for 220 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.
Mayfield has lived as a floor-based QB2 for fantasy.
Just once this season he finished higher than QB8 when he got there as a QB1.
When these teams played in Week 13, Mayfield was QB20 (9.9 points) at home in the rain versus the Panthers.
Carolina faces the lowest passing rate in the NFL.
When these teams played a few weeks ago, Tampa Bay had a 51.7% dropback rate. They had just one game with a lower rate on the season.
Running Back
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