The NFL knew what they were doing when they scheduled the Cincinnati Bengals to play in Madrid in Week 9. They wanted to send over a team they could be proud of, and positioned them as probable heavy favorites against an Atlanta Falcons team that's always in the midst of a rebuild.
No slight to the Dirty Birds, but come on now. A new coaching staff, minimal weapons on the perimeter outside of Drake London, and a Michael Penix Jr.-Tua Tagovailoa quarterback derby? Get serious, y'all.
As if the inferior opponent didn't make things straightforward enough for Cincinnati across the Atlantic, the schedule almost couldn't have worked out better for Joe Burrow and Co.
Bengals' lack of travel mileage will have them as fresh as can be before (and after) Madrid game vs. Falcons
Bookies.com's Bill Speros did a deep dive on all 32 teams' travel mileage once the NFL schedule was released, and even with the lengthy flight to and fro Spain, the Bengals will still have the 10th-fewest miles traveled in 2026. This brief blurb from Speros is telling:
"Aside from their trip to Spain, the Bengals top our list in terms of fewest miles traveled and only leave the Eastern Time Zone once. The Spain trip doubled their [mileage] this season vs. just playing the road game at Atlanta."
Among the 15,177 travel miles Cincinnati will rack up this coming season, more than half of those (8,040) come on the excursion to Madrid:
Cincinnati Bengals Miles Traveled
— Bill Speros (@billsperos) May 13, 2026
via @Bookies pic.twitter.com/mTTJPZM079
Perhaps the minimal amount of travel sans Spain is why the NFL feels OK about the Bengals not having the benefit of back-to-back home games at any point in the season. That's its own separate issue I'll expound upon at length somewhere down the road. Long offseason, ya know.
But really, the level of competition is expected to be lackluster for the most part. Even in the AFC North, every other team is adjusting to a new coaching staff. Cincinnati's continuity should bode well, as should the fact that Burrow's offense returns all 11 starters.
The biggest two-part question to me is, can the Bengals' defense jell well enough in time to capitalize on the divisional upheaval and the lack of top-flight challengers across most of the 2026 slate?
We'll all find out together too many months from now. The good news? This team should be feeling great about the Madrid game and enjoy their time there more than most in their position. Whereas a lot of teams would view it as a massive disruption to the typical SOPs, and/or lament that a bye week doesn't follow, the Bengals should be among the league's best teams, built to endure the unique test.
Add us as a preferred source on Google