NFL schedule-maker admits Bengals have a legitimate scheduling gripe: It's a 'fair' complaint
Joe Burrow has one complaint about the Bengals' 2025 schedule and it turns out he has a strong point
By
John Breech
•
4 min read
The NFL spends a lot of time every year putting the schedule together, and although the league does its best to make sure every team is happy, there are always going to be some complaints. This year, one of those complaints is coming from Joe Burrow.
When it comes to the the 2025 schedule, it's pretty clear there's one thing Burrow is NOT thrilled with.
"Playing in Baltimore for the fourth straight year [in prime time] isn't ideal," Burrow said.
The Bengals are scheduled to play in Baltimore on Thanksgiving night, which will mark the third straight season they'll have to hit the road to play the Ravens in a Thursday night game, which is almost unprecedented. According to SI.com, the Bengals are one of only three teams in NFL history that have had to play a Thursday game on the road against a divisional opponent in three straight seasons. The Bengals join the Chicago Bears and San Francisco 49ers.
- The Bears played at Green Bay on three straight Thursdays from 2015 thru 2017
- The 49ers played at Seattle on three straight Thursdays from 2022 thru 2024
Mike North, the NFL's vice president of broadcast planning and scheduling, essentially admitted that the Bengals got the short end of the stick during an interview with the team's official website.
"It's fair," North said of the complaint about playing in Baltimore again. "It's not a one-or-two years sort of a league where you fix every problem every other year or every two years. Once you start getting to the same thing three years in a row, four, or five years in a row, whether it's a short week Thursday on the road or opening on the road."
The Bengals also played a Sunday night game at Baltimore in 2021, so this will actually be Cincinnati's fourth straight prime-time game on the road against the Ravens, which led Burrow to make a plea to the NFL.
"Maybe we can get one of those in Cincinnati next year, please," Burrow said.
It sounds like North will be trying his best to make that happen in 2026.
"When trends like that emerge, we probably have to adjust at some point," the NFL's scheduling guru said.
North said if he could wave his "magic wand" and do things over, he probably would have had the Bengals-Ravens Thanksgiving game in Cincinnati. As things stand though, it's just another scheduling obstacle the Bengals will now have to overcome.
Since Zac Taylor took over as head coach in 2019, the Bengals are one of just two teams in the entire NFL that have had to play four straight road prime-time games against the same opponent. The only other time it happened came between 2019 and 2022 when the Los Angeles Rams had to go on the road to play the 49ers in four straight prime-time games.
The fact that the Bengals have gotten the short end of the stick is especially brutal because AFC North teams tend to dominate at home in prime time games against divisional opponents. Since Taylor's first year as coach, the four AFC North teams have combined to play 16 home prime-time games against a division rival, and the home team has gone 13-3 in those games.
Here's a breakdown of how many prime-time home games each AFC North team has gotten against other AFC North teams, along with their record in those games:
That's right, the Bengals have only gotten one home divisional prime-time game since Taylor took over as coach, while every other team in the division has gotten at least four.
Burrow doesn't complain about much, so the fact that he brought this up during his press conference means he probably isn't the only one in the organization who isn't happy about this scheduling quirk. North understands why Bengals players and fans are disappointed, but the league has to go with the best schedule and the Bengals playing in Baltimore on Thanksgiving was on the best version of the schedule.
"It just ended up as we got down the stretch here, that this was our best schedule, and fully acknowledging that, I'm sure the Bengals fans are a little surprised and probably a little disappointed."
Fans aren't the only ones who are disappointed, it's pretty clear that Burrow is also unhappy about the situation. Not only does Cincinnati's star quarterback want to see a home prime-time game against the Ravens in 2026, but he also has one other request.
"Maybe an international game next year, too," Burrow said.
The Bengals signal-caller is set to star in Season 2 of the Netflix series "Quarterback," and one reason he agreed to participate is because he wants to spread the game of football around the world.
"Part of the reason I wanted to do the 'Quarterback' show is I wanted to help grow the game internationally, so to not have a stage like that is a little disappointing," Burrow said of not getting an international game. "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 play road games against the Steelers (Dublin), Browns (London) and Dolphins (Madrid), who all will be hosting international games this year, but Burrow's team got passed over for an international spot. Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn recently said the team would likely be hosting an international game in 2027, but Burrow will have to wait until next May to find out if his team will be traveling abroad in 2026.
