NFL Explains Why This Season's Ravens-Bengals Primetime Game Is in Cincinnati
Last week's NFL schedule release revealed that the Cincinnati Bengals would host the Ravens in a primetime game on New Year's Eve after four consecutive years of the teams playing in Baltimore under the lights.
It turns out last year's primetime showdown at M&T Bank Stadium on Thanksgiving was originally going to be scheduled to take place at Cincinnati's Paycor Stadium.
"Up until the last 24 hours, that Thanksgiving game last year was in Cincinnati," NFL Executive Vice President of Media Distribution Hans Schroeder told The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr. "And we just saw something at the end when we tried to make the overall schedule a little bit better, including for the Bengals, it flipped it."
After the 2025 schedule release, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said playing in Baltimore in primetime yet again "isn't ideal. Maybe we can get one of those in Cincinnati next year. Please."
Schroeder said the Bengals' stance wasn't lost on the powers that be.
"We look at trends, has somebody played in a certain window in a certain time a lot?" Schroeder said. "What are things that just feel like they should be equitable over time? And we went into last year's process like, look, there's been a good streak of Cincinnati at Baltimore. Let's look and try to solve it.
"We went into this year saying it's one of the things we do need to fix. It's one of the things we should put our thumb on the scale and probably have a Thursday night that flips it a little bit so it's a little bit more equitable between the Bengals and Ravens. … So we loved the idea when we saw it ending up on New Year's Eve. We thought it'd be a fun way — in the Jungle in Week 17 — as a way to end 'Thursday Night Football' for the year."
The Ravens have fared well in Cincinnati in recent years, albeit in afternoon games. They've won the past three meetings there, and Lamar Jackson is 5-0 as a starter in Cincinnati.
Pundits Predict Ravens Will Edge Bengals for AFC North Title
NFL.com’s Ali Bhanpuri and Tom Blair expect the battle for the AFC North title to come down to the Ravens and Bengals.
The pundits predicted the result of every game this season. Both had the Ravens winning the division and the Bengals making the playoffs as a wild card.
Bhanpuri had the Ravens going 12-5 and finishing as the No. 3 seed in the AFC, while Blair had them at 11-6 and the fourth seed. They both predicted the Bengals to go 11-6.
"I saw the Ravens fall apart in 2025; I know they had real problems," Blair wrote. "Lamar Jackson was banged up, no one could rush the passer and the entire operation -- including the QB himself -- looked utterly ordinary for the first time in recent memory. But there are other recent memories, too, like Jackson's brilliant run to the 2023 MVP award and multiple seasons of suffocating defense in Baltimore.
"At this point in the year, it is real tempting to think the Ravens' major additions -- a hot new Harbaugh-molded defensive coach, a premium pass rusher and a tailor-made rookie O-lineman -- will push this team back toward the front of the AFC pack. This might be the most good on paper projection of an extremely on paper exercise, with plenty of ways to go wrong on the field, but for now, I'm buying in."
Interestingly, Bhanpuri and Blair both had the Ravens losing three games in a row during the season and then finishing strong. Bhanpuri had the Ravens winning eight of their final nine games, while Blair forecasted a 5-2 finish (with one of the losses being the primetime game in Cincinnati).
The defending AFC North champion Pittsburgh Steelers were predicted to have a losing record (8-9 by Bhanpuri, 7-10 by Blair) for the first time since 2003.
Steve Bisciotti Reflects on Making His First Draft Pick
Steve Bisciotti got the player he wanted when he used his first draft pick as Ravens owner on running back Adam Randall with the last of the team's three fifth-round selections in last month's draft.
Bisciotti reflected on the experience in a conversation with ESPN’s Jamison Hensley.
Asked about the greatest lesson he learned, Bisciotti replied, "How scared I was to literally make the pick. I put it in and I got off the phone with him and my face was white."
Hensley wrote: "In doing his homework, Bisciotti called one of his close friends, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, who vouched for running back Adam Randall and solidified him as Bisciotti's choice when he called Randall the highest-character player he'd ever coached. When the Ravens were on the clock with the 174th pick, Bisciotti started having doubts.
"There were a few players ranked higher than Randall on General Manager Eric DeCosta's draft board. Bisciotti briefly thought about asking to switch his pick to one in the sixth round instead of the fifth. But he feared Ryan Eckley, the Ravens' top-rated punter who was earmarked for the sixth round, might not be there in the seventh."
DeCosta encouraged Bisciotti to "pick your guy." After Bisciotti made the call to Randall, DeCosta said, "It's hard, isn't it?"
Bisciotti responded, "S— yes, it's hard."
