5 Bengals games that could be flexed into primetime in 2021

The Cincinnati Bengals put the NFL world on notice and announced that they’re Super Bowl contenders after dismantling the Baltimore Ravens 41-17 IN Baltimore. It was quite the stunning result and with that beatdown the Bengals laid on the Ravens, it’s time to consider moving the stripes into primetime for another game or two (or five).

Cincinnati played their lone primetime game already, which was their Week 4 triumphant win over the then-winless Jaguars on Thursday Night Football. It was surprising that the Bengals received just one primetime game this season but that’s what the schedule makers decided to do. Still, after the Jaguars game wrapped up, we all were thinking it wouldn’t be the last time we’d see this squad under the bright lights of primetime.

Before we dive into some potential games that could be flexed, let’s go over some of the rules of flex scheduling.

Per the NFL’s official website,

"“Flexible scheduling” will be used in Weeks 11-18. Additionally, in Weeks 5-10, flexible scheduling may be used in no more than two weeks. In Weeks 5-17, the schedule lists the games tentatively set for Sunday Night Football on NBC. Only Sunday afternoon games are eligible to be moved to Sunday night, in which case the tentatively scheduled Sunday night game would be moved to an afternoon start time."

So, to sum up, Week 11 is when flex scheduling typically starts but games can be flexed as early as Week 5. Only two games can be flexed between Weeks 5-10, however, so it’s not as common to move games. Obviously games can’t be flexed out of Thursday Night Football or Monday Night Football so this post is mostly discussing games that would be on Sunday Night Football or even a late afternoon game.

Let’s dive into some potential options to flex into primetime. We’ll tackle these as they appear on the schedule.