Here’s a look at the easiest and hardest stretches of the Bengals 2025 season.
The 2025 NFL schedule has been released and we not only know who and where the Cincinnati Bengals will play this upcoming season, but when those games take place. It’s truly difficult to consider a team’s strength of schedule this early in the offseason. You can go by two metrics—all the teams’ 2024 records or Vegas’ odds on the upcoming season.
Neither is super accurate at this point. After all, it’s possible the Bengals face Aaron Rodgers twice in 2025 if he signs with the Steelers. Many think that’s where he’ll play, but we don’t know because he’s busy doing whatever he does while everyone else gets ready to play football.
For the purpose of breaking down the Bengals’ easiest and toughest stretches of the season, I’m going to use Vegas’ current season win totals.
Easiest Stretch
The Bengals desperately need to get the 2025 season started off right. The only season in which they found themselves with a favorable record after the first few weeks was the team’s 2021 Super Bowl season (.500 after four weeks in 2022).
Last year, at this time, I would have said the Bengals were starting the 2024 season off with a pretty easy schedule. Other than the Chiefs in Week 2, they had the Patriots, Commanders being led by a rookie quarterback, and the Panthers.
Of course, we know they lost to the Patriots, that rookie quarterback won Offensive Rookie of the Year, and the only team they beat in the first quarter of the season was the Panthers.
As luck would have it, the Bengals’ easiest stretch of their schedule, at least according to Vegas, is the very beginning of the season.
They start off in Cleveland against the Browns (4.5), then they’re home against the Jaguars (6.5), on the road against the Vikings (8.5) and they continue their road trip to Denver to face the Broncos (9.5).
The Browns are among the favorites at landing the 2026 No. 1 overall pick as they’ll be choosing between Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, or rookie Shedeur Sanders at quarterback. AFC North games are often ugly, especially against the Browns, so I’m not expecting the Bengals to open the season with a beatdown of a division rival on the road. I do think, though, they’ll do everything they can to open at home 1-0.
When they do open at home, it will be against the Jaguars, who finished the 2024 season with a 4-13 record. They brought in head coach Liam Coen to help elevate former No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence’s play, but the Bengals should be out of the Jaguars’ league.
It gets a little tougher after that. They go back on the road up to Minnesota to face the Vikings, where we’ll get to see Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson on the same field together. This will come down to the battle between J.J. McCarthy and Joe Burrow, though, and my (and Vegas’) money is on the latter.
They stay on the road in Week 4, and it gets a little tougher still as they’ll take on the Denver Broncos in the shadow of the Rockies. Bo Nix led the 2024 Broncos to a surprising 10-7 record and a trip to the playoffs, where they were eliminated by the Bills in the Wildcard round. Whether he has a sophomore slump or not, Vegas believes Burrow and the Bengals are better, though not by a lot.
Overall, the four teams in Bengals’ opening stretch have an average projected record of 7.25.
Toughest Stretch
The Bengals host the Lions in Week 5, but after that, they face several teams they should beat. Their toughest four-week stretch of the schedule comes near the end—from Weeks 12 through 15. That’s when they play the Ravens (11.5) on the road, then the Bills (11.5) on the road, back home against the Ravens (11.5) again, and then they go to Miami to face the Dolphins (8.5).
This stretch is obviously highlighted by the Ravens and Bills. While the Bengals play the Browns in Week 1 and Week 18 and there’s a month in between their games against the Steelers, the NFL saw it fit to have the Bengals and Ravens battle not only on Thanksgiving, but just a couple of weeks later as well.
The Bengals and Ravens are predicted to battle it out for the AFC North, but Vegas, at least for now, gives Baltimore a slight edge (their record prediction for the Bengals is 10.5).
In between the Ravens games, the Bengals travel to Upstate New York to face the Bills in December. Now being in the cold doesn’t mean the Bills necessarily have the upper hand, because the Bengals beat the Bills soundly in the divisional round in the snow in 2023, but Vegas likes the Bills slightly more than they do the Bengals at this point.
After that brutal three-game stretch, the Bengals go back on the road to Miami to face the Dolphins. Miami finished with an 8-9 record in 2024 but found their way to the playoffs in 2022 and 2023. Tua Tagovailoa and Mike McDaniel can work some magic on the field, and the Bengals will need to be on their A-game to come back to Cincinnati for their final two games with a win in South Florida.
Overall, the Ravens, Bills, and Dolphins have an average projected record (over four games) of 10.75.
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What do you think of the Bengals’ 2025 schedule? What stretches of games will you have circled on your calendar?
