Cincinnati Bengals strength of schedule ranked 23rd

The NFL does a fantastic job at making trivial updates into anxiety-filled events. Instead of releasing the regular season schedule when they've determined the slots, dates and times, the NFL holds a primetime special on their own network to release the schedule -- despite already knowing a team's full slate of opponents for the next year when the regular season ended last December.

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Cincinnati's combined strength of schedule (which is only the winning percentage of last year's records), the Bengals have the 23rd toughest schedule.

All of the teams that Cincinnati is scheduled to play had a combined winning percentage of .469. It's also the toughest schedule in the AFC North -- the Steelers have a similar ranking while the Browns (26th at .465) and Ravens (28th at .461) are ranked below Cincinnati.