The 2025 NFL Draft is gone, and the schedule was recently released.

Everyone has had a chance to look and it and get their immediate reaction and thoughts.

So let’s take a dive.

There has been one main issue in the last two seasons that was non-roster-related. The team has had an incredibly slow start and has had to play catch-up for the remainder of the season.

The first four games look like this:

• Week 1 – @ Cleveland
• Week 2 – Jacksonville
• Week 3 – @ Minnesota
• Week 4 – @ Denver

The Bengals only have one home game in the first four and open the season on the road against division rivals the Browns for the first game of the Battle of Ohio. Unfortunately for Cincinnati, none of these are “easy” wins or automatic wins.

Immediately after the first four games, the Bengals host the Lions, travel to Lambeau to play the Packers, and then come home for the next three games to host another division rival with the Steelers, Jets, and Bears before the bye week.

When you take a look at that first half of the season, that’s a very tough schedule. Fox Sports has the Bengals with the 14th hardest schedule. So right about middle of the pack, but still in the top half of strength of schedule.

This is all the more reason why the Bengals MUST come out firing on all cylinders and do the necessary work in training camp and preseason to be ready to show the league they’ve changed. They can start fast and not have to play catch-up for the rest of the season.