Bengals Will Not Get a Bye After Spain Trip and Instead Will Play Back-To-Back Primetime Games

Sunday Night Football game against Steelers to follow trip overseas

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Andrei Iosivas (80) catches a pass as Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Darius Slay (23) defends in the third quarter of the NFL game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati on Oct. 16, 2025. | Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Cincinnati Bengals will not return from Spain to a bye week, per a report from Jordan Schultz.

Schultz reported the Bengals will play back-to-back primetime games in Weeks 10 and 11 after facing the Atlanta Falcons in Madrid in Week 9.

Teams no longer have the option to pick whether they want their bye to follow an international trip.

Former Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson tweeted that the bye will come in Week 6.

The Week 10 primetime game will be against the Pittsburgh Steeles on Sunday Night Football at Paycor Stadium, which further levels off a point of contention for the Bengals.

Since Zac Taylor arrived in 2019, the team has played 10 primetime games against AFC North opponents, with eight of those being on the road.

This season, the Bengals will play host to the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday Night Football on New Year’s Eve in addition to getting the Steelers under the lights at Paycor Stadium.

The Week 11 primetime game will be a road contest against the Washington Commanders on Monday Night Football.

It’s an MNF rematch from the 2024 season when the Bengals played the Commanders at Paycor Stadium in Week 3, which essentially was Jayden Daniels’ coming-out party in a 38-33 road win.

The Bengals’ first seven games of the season all will be 1 p.m. games before they travel to Spain to play the Falcons.

The season kicks off with a home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, something head coach Zac Taylor said he was more interested in than the primetime games when he spoke at his news conference Tuesday.

“Really just the first game,” he said. “It’s interesting to see how the rest of it plays out. But again, we’ve all experienced so many seasons. This season can evolve so differently in terms of teams that are hot at different points of the season, so you don’t read anything into that.

“You try to anticipate some weather. That’s always a fun thing as a team playing up north,” he continued. “We like to play in colder weather here and get warm-weather teams up here. So that’s something I always peek at — who could be coming up here when it’s maybe a little colder and (they’re) not used to it and what type of weather you can anticipate. I think that’s just the former quarterback in me. We check the weather every day leading up to the game to see if it’s going to rain or not or snow or any of that stuff.”

Taylor is 11-9 in primetime games, including 6-1 at Paycor Stadium.

The Bengals were 10-24 in primetime games during the Marvin Lewis era.

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