The Bengals primetime games hang in the balance after Joe Burrow's injuryGetty Images
Never in their history have the Bengals “been such TV darlings in the back half of a season,” but QB Joe Burrow being ruled out for the rest of the season puts into question the “possible five national games out of the final eight," according to Peter King of NBCSPORTS. NFL VP/Broadcast Planning Mike North said that is the “point of flexible scheduling.” North: “That’s one of the risks that the scheduling team faces every year in April and May when we’re putting this puzzle together. Which of these games do you deploy early in the season because you’re worried that they might not hold up if you save them for too late? And which of these games do you feel pretty good about saving for December when you’ve got to figure these teams are going to be playing for something?" He added, "Three or four Bengals games on national television in December sure seems to imply that the scheduling team thought Cincy was going to be there.” King writes the NFL is “always loathe to move” a game featuring Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes from a national window, and as of today, the league “would want Mahomes to stay in a national doubleheader window on New Year’s Eve" for Chiefs-Bengals. That is "unless the Bengals are firmly out of it," though there is an “easy fix if need be.” CBS also has Dolphins-Ravens on Dec. 31, in the early window and “easily” could trade the Mahomes game for the matchup of Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa and Ravens QB Lamar Jackson, “pushing a game with some major playoff stakes into the big late-window national game” (NBCSPORTS.com, 11/20).
