When Bill Belichick said a decade ago, "It's on to Cincinnati," he wasn't kidding.
The NFL released its 2024 NFL schedule Wednesday night and Opening Day on Sept. 8 at Paycor Stadium has the Bengals in a 1 p.m. game against the Patriots. It's New England's first game in a quarter of a century without Belichick as the head man and begins a month-long stretch the Bengals play three teams with first-year head coaches and two of them probably starting rookie quarterbacks.
Since Christmas Day 2021, according to Elias, the Bengals' .800 winning percentage at Paycor leads the AFC home fields as they emphasize a quick start after going 0-2 the last two seasons.
Also at Paycor out of the gate is a Monday night game on Sept. 23 against the Commanders and new coach Dan Quinn before they head to Charlotte Sept. 29 to play the new-look Panthers under Dave Canales.
Quinn is expected to start No. 2 pick Jayden Daniels, which makes the Monday nighter a duel between LSU quarterbacks with the Bengals' Joe Burrow looking to run his Paycor primetime record to 6-0. If Patriots rookie head coach Jerod Mayo starts No. 3 pick Drake Maye, it marks the first time since 2008 in Baltimore against Joe Flacco they open the season against a rookie quarterback.
The Bengals are also coming to a living room near you this season with nearly half of their games in a national television window. Five of them are set for prime time with an additional three at 4:25 p.m. Sunday, including the long-awaited week two rematch in Kansas City on Sept. 15 and an Oct. 27 Payor game against the Eagles that provides the Bengals with their first game ever against Philadelphia running back Saquon Barkley and quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Other schedule highlights are the Nov. 3 Paycor return of Marvin Lewis, the winningest head coach in Bengals history now the assistant to Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce, the first ever Bengals-Cowboys primetime game in Dallas Dec. 9 in another Monday nighter, and the Dec. 15 trip to Tennessee for the 1 p.m. game against head coach Brian Callahan's Titans.
Callahan is one of six first-year head coaches on the Bengals' schedule, but the most well-known to them as head coach Zac Taylor's offensive coordinator for the previous five seasons.
In addition to the Monday nighter on ABC against Washington, they host Cleveland Dec. 19 in a Thursday night Prime Video game. That's the second time they're on Thursday night this season, the first time in their history they've played multiple Thursday games.
Check out the behind-the-scenes action from the Bengals 2024 schedule release video shoot.
The first one comes Nov. 7 in Baltimore against the defending AFC North champs and starts the toughest stretch of the season. But they get a bit of a cushion with the mini-bye for the Nov. 17 game in Los Angeles against the Chargers followed by a bye the weekend of Nov. 24, the second-latest bye in their history.
The rest of the way is hand-fighting to the playoffs with four of the last six games against playoff teams, including a rare season finale in Pittsburgh. They play Pittsburgh twice in that stretch where their foes have a combined 46-39 record from last season.
