Upon further review, the NFL likes how it fit the Bengals into seven national windows with the possibility of more, while also wishing it could have given them a primetime Paycor Stadium game against AFC North rival Baltimore instead of sending them on the road.

When the dust settled from last week's 2025 schedule release, the Bengals had three coveted 4:25 slots to go with four prime-time games that include a holiday marquee game, as well as an ESPN Monday nighter in Denver that Mike North finds the most intriguing on their slate.

"I like the game that we played last year with playoff implications down the stretch," says North, the NFL's vice president of broadcast planning & scheduling.

"Obviously, that's one we couldn't play in primetime in Cincy because it was in Denver. But it's too good a game for a Sunday afternoon. You know, a 4:05 window to only go to 20-25% of the country."

In Week 17 last year at Paycor Stadium, Bengals' MVP candidate Joe Burrow engaged Broncos' Rookie of the Year candidate Box Nix in an overtime quarterback duel between two playoff contenders that Burrow ended with a walk-off three-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Tee Higgins. The rematch comes in week four on Sept. 29 in an 8:15 game on ABC (Cincinnati's Channel 9) called by first-stringers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman opposite the 7:15 Jets-Miami game on ESPN.

"That one just felt like it needed a bigger footprint. And you throw it in one of these side-by-sides," North says. "ESPN usually does a pretty good job taking you back and forth with live look-ins, but I think you're going to get Joe and Troy out there in Denver … We're looking forward to seeing another rematch of that one with those two teams hopefully battling again for a playoff spot."

When North looks at the totality of the Bengals schedule, he says," I like the flexibility down the stretch and I also like that they are earmarked for some big windows," as he eyes the last three games of the season. Two are to be determined, and the other is a Week 16 Sunday nighter in Miami.

If North could have one game back to re-schedule, he would 'wave a magic wand," over that third straight short week Thursday night game in Baltimore on Nov. 27. He gets it. He knows the fans and the team aren't happy, just like they're livid in Los Angeles because the Rams always seem to travel to San Francisco to play their division rivals in a primetime game.

"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."

North says it's going to happen. And it could have happened in '25.

"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 says. "Which puts them in the same category as all 31 other teams. Everybody is just a little disappointed in the schedule makers."

But the schedule-makers giveth as well as taketh away. That Thursday nighter in Baltimore game caps the Thanksgiving tripleheader with the Bengals' second all-time appearance on Thanksgiving Day, their first one in 14 years, and may end up being one of their most watched games of all-time.

"They deserve it. You've played your way into these windows," North says. "An MVP quality quarterback and superstar wide receivers, and we play exciting games. Both Ravens-Bengals games last year were spectacular. We wanted to make sure that we ended up with at least one of them in primetime this year. We got it. I'm sure Bengals fans would have preferred it in Cincinnati, but it should be fun for you guys to ruin Baltimore's Thanksgiving.

"One way to ensure a little extra mustard on those is to make them division games. And you see how big we went on Thanksgiving this year. When you start the day with Green Bay-Detroit, and you come back with KC-Dallas in the middle, you needed something for NBC Thursday night to kind of fit with that motif, if you will. And that's how we ended up with Bengals-Ravens."

Besides the Monday Nighter in Denver, North is most looking forward to the Bengals’ 4:25 game in Buffalo on Dec. 7. The folks at FOX have expressed their appreciation for one of those spicy AFC matchups they always long. How high are the ratings going to be with Tom Brady talking about Burrow and Josh Allen?

"When you talk about Bengals-Buffalo, that sounds like Sunday night football, or maybe it sounds like a 4:25 Sunday afternoon game on CBS," North says.

"(FOX was) really, I don't want to say surprised, because they knew it was possible, but they were really excited to see a game like Buff-Cincy on their schedule. That's a rarity, too."

That's the last of the Bengals' 4:25 games. The first two come against NFC North powers in back-to-back games. On Oct. 5, the Lions are at Paycor Stadium, also on FOX, and the next week the Bengals go to Green Bay on CBS.

Just as good as a primetime game when it comes to exposure, North says.

"You also have to remember the way we think about it in that office. It's not just about primetime, it's also about the 4:25 Sunday afternoon games," North says. "Those are still the most watched windows that we have. That average is still higher than anything we do in primetime, so they pick up an extra 4:25 home exposure with Detroit coming in."

As for the possible flex games, North sees the Bengals' final two games of the year at Paycor against the NFC West Cardinals and the AFC North rival Browns with Arizona viewed as an up-and-coming team boasting the NFL's fifth-best offense challenging the Bengals' No. 1 pass offense.

Both games are to be determined, and North only has to go back to the final week last year when the TBDs went in the Saturday 4:30 and 8 p.m. slots filled by AFC North games with the Bengals' win over the Steelers in primetime.

"Two of the last three years, the Sunday night game in Week 17 came out of the TBD pool," North says. "What do any of us know here eight months out? But Cincy has been right there the last few years. If you had to pick a team you thought was going to be playoff relevant in week 16, 17, or 18," the Bengals are on the list.