The Bengals have played two international games in their history, both in London during the previous decade, with the last one a 24-10 loss to the Rams at Wembley Stadium in 2019 during head coach Zac Taylor’s first season.
It marks Taylor’s fifth overseas game with three coming as an assistant coach with Miami and the Rams. It’s also his first not in London.
“It’s an unbelievable opportunity to grow the game internationally. That’s an important part of what we do,” Taylor said. “I think it’s awesome the brand of the Bengals gets extended internationally. We’ve got a lot of great players on the team that the world will get to watch on center stage.”
It’s not only Burrow’s first international game, it’s also captain and left tackle Orlando Brown Jr’s first overseas junket in his ninth season.
“Only time I’ve been out of the country is Mexico, so this is exciting and a beautiful spot,” Brown said. “It’s great for growing the brand of the NFL. It brings in more fans, more people who have an understanding of what we do.”
The Bengals are hoping the game translates to a bye the following weekend of Nov. 15. That would be a schedule sweet spot almost in the middle of the season, and giving them seven straight games to the end of the season.
“With the bye we’ll probably end up getting, it’s a plus for the things we want to accomplish this season,” Brown said. “It’s nice it’s an NFC opponent where neither of us are too familiar with each other. They do have Kevin Stefanski. He’s seen a lot of Bengals football.”
Before becoming head coach of the Falcons this year, Stefanski coached AFC North rival Cleveland during the previous six seasons.
Despite whirlwind offseasons on the go, this is Burow’s first trip to Spain.
“I hope we go out early in the week so we can experience it a little bit,” Burrow said. “Get acclimated to the time zone, have some team bonding out there. Expand my horizons a little bit.”
