Ranking Bengals 2021 season schedule by opponent difficulty

The Cincinnati Bengals have one of the toughest schedules this year and that’s not shocking considering they play their AFC North foes a total of six times as well as the Chiefs and the Packers. Let’s rank the opponents by how difficult they are, beginning with the “easiest” and finishing up with the toughest.

Even though the Bengals play 17 games this year, there will only be 14 opponents listed. This is obviously because they play the Browns, Ravens, and Steelers multiple times.

Ranking Bengals Opponents by Difficulty

14. Jacksonville Jaguars (Week 4)

The so-called “weakest” opponent on the Bengals’ schedule this year just so happens to be the Bengals’ only primetime matchup this year, as they’ll host the Jaguars on Thursday Night Football four weeks into the season. Joe Burrow vs Trevor Lawrence is the reason this game was picked as a primetime affair and it’ll be fun watching the last two No. 1 overall picks go head-to-head.

Of course, the reason the Jaguars were able to land Lawrence is that they were the worst team in the league last year, winning just one game. They hired Urban Meyer as their head coach and have made moves this offseason but when push comes to shove, this team is nowhere near as difficult as the other teams on the Bengals’ schedule.