The Bengals have a good chance to be the Dolphins’ opponent in Spain next season.

On January 18, 2025By Littum

CINCINNATI – The NFL announced Friday that the Miami Dolphins will be the home team for the league’s first game played in Spain, and the Cincinnati Bengals could be their opponent in Madrid.

The Bengals are one of nine teams the Dolphins are scheduled to host in 2025.

But the odds of the Bengals playing the Dolphins in Madrid are much greater than 1 in 9 (11 percent).

First, you can eliminate the New England Patriots as a possibility. They played in Germany in 2023 and in London in 2024. No team other than the Jacksonville Jaguars – who play in London every year – has played in three consecutive internationals.

And you can almost certainly eliminate the New York Jets because not only did they play in London last year, they will return in 2025 as the host team.

That reduces the Bengals’ odds of becoming an opponent to 1 in 7 (14.3 percent).

There are no more locks to remove from consideration, but there is reason to believe that other teams have a reduced chance of facing the Dolphins in Madrid.

In the first three years of the 17-game schedule, nine of the 10 games played in Europe were between teams from the same conference.

That could suggest the Dolphins’ 2025 NFC opponents — the New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Washington Commanders — are longshots to face Miami in Madrid.

Two of the five international games in 2024 were inter-conference contests, though one of them involved the Jaguars, who are always outliers in any of these conversations.

Removing the three NFC teams from the list of possibilities increases the Bengals’ chances to 1 in 4 (25 percent).

However, it is worth noting that the Commanders have the fourth-longest drought without an international game, with their only appearance coming in 2016 against the Bengals.

The Steelers (11 years), Cowboys (10) and Lions (nine) have the longest droughts.

The Bengals are tied for the sixth-longest drought after not playing an international game since 2019. That’s another reason to believe their chances are good.

Here are Miami’s other home opponents in 2025 (with their most recent international appearance):

Baltimore Ravens (2023)

Buffalo Bills (2023)

Los Angeles Chargers (2019)

Not only have the Bills played an overseas game recently, their AFC East affiliation may exclude them from consideration as the NFL hasn’t held a divisional game in Europe since 2019 (Buccaneers vs Panthers).

So if you were doing betting odds, the Bengals and Chargers would be the two favorites.

And given the star power Cincinnati has with Joe Burrow, JaMarr Chase and maybe Tee Higgins, the Bengals feel like the leading contender.

The league will announce matchups for all the international matches closer to the release of the full schedule in May.

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