The Cincinnati Bengals answered a losing season by keeping the people in charge and replacing almost everyone in front of them. Zac Taylor stayed. Personnel chief Duke Tobin stayed. Then the club committed close to 300 million dollars in free agency, nearly all of it on a defense that had finished last against the run.

Everything in the panels on this page arrives from the league feed, so the scores, standings, roster and team leaders refresh without anyone touching them. Below is what a feed will not tell you: the shape of the year, the dates that sit outside the usual Sunday pattern, and the numbers behind the stadium on the riverfront.

The Season Cincinnati Paid For

The 2025 record was 6-11, a third straight year without a playoff berth. The split inside it explains the spending. Cincinnati went 5-3 in the eight games Joe Burrow started and 1-8 in the nine he missed with turf toe. The defense allowed the third most points in the league.

So the money went to the line. Tackles Dexter Lawrence II and Jonathan Allen arrived alongside edge rusher Boye Mafe and T.J. Slaton Jr., and eleven defensive linemen made the 53 man roster. That is an unusual share of a roster to hand to one position group, and it is the clearest statement the front office has made in years.

The staff barely moved. Zac Taylor is in his eighth season, Dan Pitcher his third as offensive coordinator and Al Golden his second running the defense. Burrow enters year seven with Joe Flacco behind him, and Cincinnati carried only two quarterbacks. Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins are still paired outside.

Cincinnati Bengals 2026 Games and Kickoff Times

All seventeen fixtures are below with Eastern start times. Cincinnati sits in the Eastern zone, so each figure is also the clock reading at Paycor Stadium. Tap a row to open that game.

Want the printable version? The full Cincinnati Bengals schedule 2026 has a free PDF, wall calendar and kickoff times in every time zone.

Two rows carry no date yet. Weeks 16 and 18 are set late by design, and the league can also lift a 1:00 PM game into a night slot under flexible scheduling. Both times shown as TBD will be filled in once those decisions are made.

Eight Home Dates and a Sunday in Madrid

Cincinnati has eight home dates and nine on the road, and the reason is Week 9. The Bengals meet Atlanta at Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid at 9:30 AM ET on NFL Network, a 3:30 PM local kickoff. Atlanta is the designated host, so the fixture counts as a road game. Some listings get this wrong.

It is the first Bengals game played in Spain and only the third in Europe, after London in 2016 and 2019. Travel is otherwise light. Houston is the single domestic trip that leaves the Eastern zone; the other seven road cities all keep the same clock as Cincinnati.

Three night games sit on three different platforms: Pittsburgh on NBC, Washington on ESPN and Baltimore on Prime Video, that last one a Thursday meeting on New Year’s Eve. The Battle of Ohio frames the finish, at Cleveland in Week 13 and at home in Week 18, which means division tiebreakers are still being written in January. Live positions are on the NFL standings page.

Paycor Stadium and Bengals Franchise Facts

Home is Paycor Stadium on the Cincinnati riverfront, an open air bowl seating 65,515 that opened in August 2000. More than 70 percent of the seats run along the sidelines, and it was the first NFL venue to win a design award from the American Institute of Architects.

It carried the name Paul Brown Stadium until 2022, after the coach who founded the club in 1968 and had already built the Cleveland Browns before that. Cincinnati has won three AFC championships and lost all three Super Bowls that followed, in the 1981, 1988 and 2021 seasons. The trophy case is still empty.

The roster panel above tracks the active 53 straight from the league feed, so it reflects every signing, release and injury designation as it happens rather than a snapshot from the start of the year.

Cincinnati Bengals FAQ

The Cincinnati Bengals go into 2026 with a rebuilt defensive front, a healthy quarterback and eight Sundays at Paycor Stadium. Madrid in November and New Year’s Eve against Baltimore are the two dates that break the pattern, and the Battle of Ohio decides how the year ends.

Last updated: September 9, 2026. Checked against bengals.com and nfl.com.