Bengals To Get Early Notification On Whether They Will Play the Dolphins in Spain

CINCINNATI – The wait to see if the Cincinnati Bengals will play an international game in 2025 is now one day shorter.

The NFL announced today that it will release the schedule of international games on Tuesday.

During the NFL Draft last month, the league announced that the schedule would be released on Wednesday.

But as has been the case in the past, the league will be rolling out certain matchups ahead of the full release, and today’s announcement that all of the international games a day early put the Bengals on notice.

Miami already had been announced in January as the home team for the game in Madrid, Spain, this year.

The Bengals will play a road game against the Dolphins, which gives them a 1 in 9 chance of being the opponent. At least on the surface.

But in reality, the Bengals’ chances of being the opponent are much greater than 1 in 9.

First, you can pretty much eliminate the Patriots as an option after they played in Germany in 2023 and in London in 2024. No team other than the Jacksonville Jaguars – who play in London every year – has played three consecutive international games.

And you almost certainly can eliminate the New York Jets because not only did they play in London last year, but they will also be going back in 2025 as a host team.

So that drops the Bengals’ chances of being the opponent to 1 in 7 (14.3 percent).

There aren’t any more locks to remove from consideration, but there are reasons to believe other teams have a reduced chance of facing the Dolphins in Madrid.

In the first three years of the 17-game schedule, nine of the 10 games played in Europe were between teams from the same conference.

That could suggest the Dolphins’ 2025 NFC opponents – the New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Washington Commanders – are longshots to face Miami in Madrid.

Two of the five international games in 2024 were inter-conference contests, although one of those involved the Jaguars, who always are outliers in any of these conversations.

If you take the three NFC teams off the list of options, the Bengals’ chances increase to 1 in 4 (25 percent).

 It is worth noting, however, that the Commanders have the fourth longest drought without an international game, with their only appearance coming in 2016 against the Bengals.

The Steelers (11 years), Cowboys (10) and Lions (nine) have the longest droughts.

The Bengals are tied for the sixth longest drought, having not played an international game since 2019. That’s another reason to think their chances are good.

In addition to the full slate of international games, the NFL will allow its broadcast partners to announce a few other games before the full schedule release.

Those early announcements typically involve primetime and/or holiday matchups.

The Bengals are expected to be heavily involved in primetime in 2025, so there is a chance that they could find out two of their game times/sites before the official schedule release at 8 p.m. Wednesday.