When the National Football League officially released its 2025 schedule last week, several teams and players lamented the quirks that seemingly put them in disadvantageous positions. Count Joe Burrow as one of them, particularly regarding Cincinnati facing one of its biggest rivals.
While the Bengals will get one of the most coveted scheduling spots of the entire season—playing in primetime on Thanksgiving—it will come on the road versus the Baltimore Ravens. Playing on the road versus a divisional rival was a given, but Burrow was miffed that the game would be in primetime, as it has been for three straight years. The Bengals suffered defeats all three times. Well, the schedule makers have made it four for four, to the displeasure of the league’s passing leader last season.
Each of the last two Bengals road games at Baltimore was on Thursday night, while the 2022 game was on a Sunday night. It was during the 2021 season that the Bengals last experienced Baltimore during the day and, coincidentally, that’s the only time Burrow has beaten the Ravens on the road in his NFL career.
That Thanksgiving night game is one of four primetime games for Cincinnati, which matches the number that both Baltimore and fellow divisional rival Pittsburgh have. The other AFC North team—the Cleveland Browns—is one of three NFL teams with zero primetime games next season, though the Browns will have a standalone contest when they face the Minnesota Vikings in London in Week 5.
Cincinnati’s other primetime games also likely didn’t delight Burrow as two of them will be on the road, meaning three of Cincy’s four primetime games are road contests. They will play at the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football in Week 4, will host the Steelers on Thursday Night Football in Week 7, and they’ll visit the Miami Dolphins on Sunday Night Football in Week 16.
Nonetheless, the Bengals’ franchise, as a whole, is thrilled with the opportunity to be on a national stage on Thanksgiving, as this will be the first time in 15 years that Cincinnati plays on Turkey Day. However, what Burrow seems to value just as much as a Thanksgiving game is an international game, and the Bengals were left out in that regard for the 2025 NFL season.
The league will have a single-season record of seven international games in five countries, but Cincy won’t be featured in any. Burrow lamented the Bengals’ not being chosen to showcase their talents abroad.
“To not have a stage like that is a little disappointing,” Burrow admitted. “I feel like I’ve consciously worked hard to try to grow the game internationally over the last 18 months or so. Hopefully at some point in my career we can go over there.”
The Bengals have played just two games on foreign soil in franchise history. After this season, that will tie for the second-fewest among all teams, with the Dallas Cowboys having gone overseas just once.
Cincy played in London in 2016 in what remains the only tie game in the history of the NFL International Series as Cincinnati and Washington scored 27 apiece. The Bengals then returned to London in 2019, where they lost to the Rams, and that game came just months before Burrow was drafted.
While Burrow is a bit unhappy, the fan bases of the other teams in the division also have their issues with the schedule. The Browns being shut out when it comes to primetime games has to irk their fans, especially considering they emerged from the NFL Draft with arguably the most polarizing player: Shedeur Sanders.
As for Baltimore, it gets to host Cincy on Thanksgiving but won’t host anyone for nearly a month in the middle of the season. Baltimore is one of three teams that is scheduled to play three straight road games in the season: They’ll play at Miami, Minnesota and Cleveland from Weeks 9 to 11. Baltimore is also one of six teams that will close out the season with back-to-back road games.
Meanwhile, the Steelers drew the short end of the stick when it comes to bye weeks. Pittsburgh will head overseas to Dublin, Ireland, to face the Vikings in Week 4, then have a bye in Week 5. Three other teams will also have that week off. It’s the earliest of bye weeks, and it’s widely known that teams prefer having byes later in the season to break up the year into two fairly equal parts. Pittsburgh won’t get that luxury and will have 13 straight weeks of football to close the regular season.
