It was quite the offseason for the Super Bowl LV champions. The Buccaneers at first thought they'd lost Tom Brady to retirement in February, before he returned several months later. By coincidence or not, head coach Bruce Arians announced his own retirement shortly thereafter. Arians' defensive coordinator, former Jets head coach Todd Bowles, now takes the reins of a team that lost its two top tight ends, all-time great Rob Gronkowski and O.J. Howard. Brady hasn't missed playing in the Super Bowl in consecutive seasons since 2014, which is a crazy streak the likes of which no football fan will see again. The Bucs have arguably the best team in the NFC, which is why they are the oddsmakers' conference favorites. It would almost be fitting to see the GOAT win another Super Bowl, his record seventh, and ride off into retirement and his nearly $400 million FOX broadcasting contract. But he's also coming off of back-to-back 40+ touchdown pass seasons, so rumors of Brady's demise are probably shortsighted.

If there's one kryptonite to Brady's regular season success in Tampa, it's the New Orleans Saints. He's 0-4 in the last two seasons against the Saints in the regular season, though the Buccaneers won in New Orleans in January 2021 on their way to a Super Bowl title. No team starts the season with a tougher set of games than Bowles' Bucs. A trip to Dallas on Sunday Night Football in Week 1 is difficult enough, followed by another chance to defeat the pesky Saints in the Caesars SuperDome. Even though the games are at home, wins are no certainty when facing Aaron Rodgers' Packers and Patrick Mahomes' Chiefs. Assuming Tampa at worst splits the first four games, the rest of the schedule is far from daunting. It's conceivable that other than Week 14's road test at San Francisco, the Bucs should be a decent favorite at worst in every game after Kansas City.

With the NFC South being arguably the weakest division in football, the Buccaneers should cruise to an easy division title and look like a solid bet at +340 to win the NFC. Getting to 12 wins and achieving the oddsmakers' over/under shouldn't be a problem if Brady remains upright. A Tampa-Buffalo Super Bowl matchup would be tremendous to end the season and therefore the best value might be Tampa Bay in Super Bowl head-to-head matchups paired with teams from the AFC such as Buffalo or the LA Chargers.

• More NFL futures: SportsLine Projection Model's best bets

Below, you'll find the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2022 schedule, win total and more futures odds from Caesars Sportsbook, followed by picks from top SportsLine NFL analysts Larry Hartstein, R.J. White and Alex Selesnick. You'll also find three bets favored by the SportsLine Projection Model.

Entering the 2022 NFL season, Larry is 427-344 all-time on NFL sides (plus $3,764 for $100 players), including 394-330 ATS. He went 68-50 ATS (58 percent) and 8-3 on moneyline plays last season for a profit of $1,552. Over the past seven years, R.J.'s SuperContest picks are 329-250-21 (56.8 percent) and he consistently crushes the NFL: He went 445-378-24 on ATS picks from 2017-21, returning $2,542 to $100 players as SportsLine's No. 1 NFL expert in against the spread picks. Selesnick (aka PropStarz) specializes in MLB, NFL and NBA prop betting, where he implements a combination of research, statistical analysis and mathematical modeling to deliver profitable long-term results.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2022 schedule

Week 1: at Dallas (SNF)
Week 2: at New Orleans
Week 3: vs. Green Bay
Week 4: vs. Kansas City (SNF)
Week 5: vs. Atlanta
Week 6: at Pittsburgh
Week 7: at Carolina
Week 8: vs. Baltimore (THU)
Week 9: vs. Los Angeles Rams
Week 10: vs. Seattle (in Munich, Germany)
Week 11: BYE
Week 12: at Cleveland
Week 13: vs. New Orleans (MNF)
Week 14: at San Francisco
Week 15: vs. Cincinnati
Week 16: at Arizona (SNF)
Week 17: vs. Carolina
Week 18: at Atlanta

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2022 futures odds

Win Total Over: 11.5 (+100)
Win Total Under: 11.5 (-120)

Make Playoffs: -650
Miss Playoffs: +450

Win Division: -320
Win Conference: +340
Win Super Bowl: +750

So will the Buccaneers go over or under their win total for the 2022 season? And what other futures bets are worth making? ... Join SportsLine right now to see Larry Hartstein and R.J. White's Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2022 futures picks, all from the acclaimed experts who have crushed the NFL for years!