Joe Burrow didn’t hide his frustration when asked about the Bengals’ 2025 schedule. In fact, he sounded less like a franchise quarterback and more like a fan who’s grown tired of the same storyline playing on repeat.
At Bengals minicamp earlier this month, Burrow made it clear that he supports the league’s international expansion efforts. But he also delivered a pretty pointed critique of the NFL’s scheduling habits, particularly the league’s recent obsession with sending Cincinnati to Baltimore in primetime.
“Playing in Baltimore for the fourth straight primetime wasn’t ideal. Maybe make one of those in Cincinnati next year. Please,” Burrow said. “Maybe an international game next year, too.”
Burrow knew what he was doing.
And based on what NFL VP of broadcast planning Mike North told Bengals.com, the message was received, even if it didn’t change anything this year.
“It’s fair. It’s not a one-or-two years sort of a league where you fix every problem every other year or every two years,” North says. “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. When trends like that emerge, we probably have to adjust at some point.”
In fact, North says they nearly made that change this year.
“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,” North said. “Which puts them in the same category as all 31 other teams. Everybody is just a little disappointed in the schedule makers.”
While North tried to paint the issue as part of a larger balancing act, his admission that the NFL may need to “adjust at some point” is as close to a mea culpa as you’ll hear from the league’s top scheduler.
The bigger issue isn’t just the frequency of primetime road trips to Baltimore, it’s what it signals. The Bengals have become one of the league’s most exciting teams, yet their marquee moments keep getting packaged as road games in hostile environments.
And while the Thanksgiving night matchup in Baltimore will likely be one of the most-watched games in Bengals history, marking only their second appearance ever on the holiday, and their first in 14 years, it’s fair to ask why a team with a top-five quarterback can’t get that kind of platform at home.
If the NFL wants to market Burrow as a global star, it might stop sending him to the same primetime road game every year.
Even the oft even-keeled Burrow is starting to lose his patience.