When Bengals head coach Zac Taylor was asked about the team playing an international game at a Tuesday press conference, he said he was “all for it” and he may have had some advance notice of what was coming a few hours later.
The NFL announced on Tuesday afternoon that the Bengals will be traveling to Madrid to face the Falcons on Sunday, November 8 in Week 9 of the regular season. The game will be played at Real Madrid’s Bernabeu Stadium and it will be telecast on NFL Network.
This will be the third time that the Bengals have played a game outside the United States. They also played games in London in 2016 and 2019.
The full international slate for 2026 is set to be announced on Wednesday morning and the entire scheduled will be revealed on Thursday night.
The Bengals know they will be playing in Baltimore at some point during the 2026 season, but the timing of that game will be of some interest.
When the schedule is released on Thursday, head coach Zac Taylor and the rest of the Bengals will learn whether their annual road game against the Ravens will be played in primetime for the fifth year in a row. Taylor was asked if he’d be surprised to see things go that way during a press conference on Tuesday.
“I think I would be surprised, but prepared for it, if that’s what they choose to do to us for the fifth straight year,” Taylor said.
The Bengals lost their first three night games in Baltimore, but they snapped that streak with a win over the Ravens on Thanksgiving in 2025. This year’s matchup will look different from that one in one significant way as Jesse Minter is now coaching the Ravens. We’ll find out if the setting is also different in a couple of days.
The Bengals claimed linebacker Swayze Bozeman off waivers from the Giants, the team announced Friday.
The Bengals also signed undrafted free agent safety Isaiah Nwokobia.
Bozeman is a second-year player out of the University of Southern Mississippi. He entered the league as a college free agent signee of the Chiefs in 2024.
Bozeman has played nine career games for the Chiefs (2024) and Giants (2025), totaling five defensive tackles along with four special teams stops.
Nwokobia is a rookie out of SMU.
The Bengals have signed multiple draft picks and several undrafted free agents as they begin their rookie minicamp this weekend.
Cincinnati announced the club has signed fourth-round center Connor Lew, fourth-round receiver Colbie Young, sixth-round center Brian Parker, seventh-round tight end Jack Endries, and seventh-round defensive tackle Landon Robinson.
That leaves second-round defensive end Cashius Howell and third-round cornerback Tacario Davis as the club’s remaining unsigned draftees.
The Bengals also signed 10 undrafted free agents: guard Liam Brown, running back Kentrel Bullock, linebacker Jack Dingle, linebacker Eric Gentry, running back Jamal Haynes, offensive tackle Christian Jones, tight end Josh Kattus, offensive tackle Corey Robinson, receiver Noah Thomas, and cornerback Ceyair Wright.
Dax Hill has shown he has the versatility to play in multiple spots in the Bengals secondary over the years, but he thinks the best plan is for him to stay at one position moving forward.
Hill began his time in Cincinnati as a safety and opened last season as a slot corner before moving to an outside corner spot a few weeks into the year. Hill finished the season with 88 tackles and an interception, and he said on Tuesday that he believes remaining in that spot will be the best thing for both him and the team.
“Staying at one spot, I feel like that’s ideal for development and my mental health. . . . It was challenging at first, but now I’m kind of used to it,” Hill said, via Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “But I feel like now I kind of know what I want and I want to do what’s best for the team.”
Hill is in the fifth year of his rookie deal, so his play in the coming season will help determine the size of his next contract. That makes his desire to feel as comfortable as possible even easier to understand as the Bengals move toward the start of the regular season.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was nowhere near a football field on Monday, but his mind was still on the team’s prospects.
Burrow attended the Met Gala in New York City and did an interview with Nick Remsen of Vanity Fair — Burrow wore a suit from Bode, which means we won’t get a “The Bengal Wears Prada” headline — while getting ready for the festivities. Burrow was asked about his reaction to the recent trade for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence as well as earlier moves to add safety Bryan Cook, edge rusher Boye Mafe, defensive tackle Jonathan Allen and safety Kyle Dugger in free agency.
“I’m really excited about the moves we made this offseason,” Burrow said. “We need to get better, so it was exciting to see the initiative from everybody in the organization to realize that we’re in this exciting stage. We’re in our primes playing great football. Finding guys like Dexter and Bryan Cook and Boye, to, you know, really solidify that defense so the young guys can also kind of rise up. We’re really going to try to achieve what we want to achieve.”
Whatever the reference, it’s a very different tone from Burrow than the deflated one he shared in some late-season press conferences last year. If that tone is still positive months from now, it will be a sign that the Bengals’ offseason maneuvering worked out as hoped.
Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins has played with 17 different starting quarterbacks in his 13-year career with the Texans, Cardinals, Titans, Chiefs and Ravens. Deshaun Watson, Kyler Murray, Ryan Tannehill, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson are among those.
Hopkins, who is currently a free agent, was asked at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday who he would like throwing him passes among the quarterbacks he hasn’t played with. His answer was quick: Joe Burrow,
“I think Joe is one of the best,” Hopkins said in an interview with Sports Illustrated. “I love his game, his toughness. He took his team to a Super Bowl early in his career, and I feel like he can get back there with a little bit of help.”
He previously mentioned a desire to play with Burrow after catching a pass from the Bengals quarterback during the Fanatics Flag Football Classic. But Hopkins said in March he wants to reunite with Murray in Minnesota.
Truth be told, Hopkins is a free agent who wants an opportunity — somewhere, anywhere — to continue his career.
He appeared in 17 games with the Ravens last season, but the five-time Pro Bowler made only 22 receptions for 330 yards and two touchdowns.
The NFL may be lining up its drafts farther into the future than its Super Bowls.
The Super Bowl sites have been set through February 2029. Via Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, the April 2029 draft possibly could be awarded at or about the same time the 2028 draft site is selected.
Fischer reports that some believe Cincinnati has the “inside track” to hosting the 2029 draft. It’s not clear, however, whether the league is willing to award the 2029 draft in the short term.
Minnesota is currently the “clear favorite” to be awarded the 2028 draft later this month.
Commissioner Roger Goodell told Pat McAfee last Friday that the league may start awarding drafts “a little further in advance,” given the size of the endeavor.
“The Super Bowl has gotten to a point where, it’s not the stadium size . . . but also it’s hotel rooms and all the other facilities that are necessary. [Hosting the draft] is slightly easier, but it’s getting more difficult,” Goodell said.
Frankly, that reality underscores the absence of a firm date for Super Bowl LXII, to be played more than two months before the 2028 draft. A date hasn’t been picked for one reason and one reason only: The NFL still hopes to expand the season to 18 games as of 2027.
And if the owners don’t announce a date certain for the game to be played in Atlanta (under the current season size, it would be February 13, 2028) at their next meeting later this month, it means that they’ll spend the summer months trying to persuade the NFL Players Association to agree to the inevitable expansion of the regular season as soon as possible.
Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said earlier this week that the team was still determining whether or not they would exercise their option on defensive end Myles Murphy’s contract for 2027 and deliberation time has now come to an end.
According to multiple reports, the Bengals will decline the fifth-year option on the 2023 first-round pick’s deal. Murphy would have been guaranteed $14.475 million in 2027 under the terms of the option.
Those reports indicate that the Bengals are interested in working out a long-term deal that would keep Murphy from leaving as a free agent next March.
Murphy compiled 92 tackles, 8.5 sacks and a forced fumble over his first three seasons. He had 5.5 sacks last season and continued progress in the coming season would help his chances of landing that kind of multi-year pact in Cincinnati or somewhere else.
The Bengals used free agency, trades and the draft to add to different areas of their defense this offseason, but there was one position group that has been left untouched.
Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter became the starting linebackers after being drafted last year and the Bengals did not add any competition for them over the last couple of months. On Monday, Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said the team hasn’t ruled out making any moves before September but that they have “real belief” in the duo and he believes the addition of players like Dexter Lawrence and Jonathan Allen to the defensive line is “going to elevate those guys” in their second season.
“We’ll always look at adding the right guy again. I am not down on my linebackers,” Tobin said, via the team’s website. “They individually will improve and collectively will improve by what we’ve done and the experience that they’ve gained. If there are people that we think can add to the group, we’ll add to the group. We’re not done roster building.”
The Bengals know their defense needs to be better in 2026 and their bet on their second-year linebackers will play a big role in whether that happens.
