Cincinnati Bengals NFL Schedule Roasts Opponents With Pokemon

The Cincinnati Bengals used franchise QB Joe Burrow’s love for the Pokemon franchise as a way to reveal and roast who they will face during the 2026 NFL season. The Bengals used various critters from the Pokemon series to describe their upcoming opponents, with some notable jabs taken at their three AFC North division rivals.

Although the Cincinnati QB is known for his competitiveness and his leadership on the gridiron, Burrow is also an avid Pokemon fan. During the 2025 NFL season, Burrow stated that he was a fan of the Pokemon Trading Card Game. Burrow said that he found the current culture of ripping open packs of cards to grade and sell as “a weird one” that has taken off on social media. Burrow also revealed that some of his favorite Pokemon cards are from older generations, and mentioned Mewtwo, Zapdos, and Blaziken among his top picks.

NFL Opponents Compared to Pokemon

While the 2026 NFL season is still four months away as of this writing, that has not stopped the Bengals from having a bit of fun at their opponents’ expense. The Bengals took to Twitter to reveal the opponents that they will face throughout the upcoming season. Additionally, the Bengals used images from the Pokemon franchise as a way to roast or compliment their NFL opponents. To start, the Trash Bag Pokemon called Trubbish was used to describe one of the Bengals’ oldest foes, the Cleveland Browns. Although the Bengals finished the 2025 NFL season at 6-11 and missed the playoffs, the Browns fared worse with a 5-12 record. As AFC North division foes, the Bengals will face the Browns twice during the 2026 NFL season, with one game in Cincinnati and the other in Cleveland.

The Cincinnati Bengals 2026 NFL Season Opponents As Pokemon

• Cleveland Browns – Trubbish
• Pittsburgh Steelers – Klang
• Miami Dolphins – Magikarp
• Kansas City Chiefs – Zebstrika
• Jacksonville Jaguars – Persian
• Tennessee Titans – Shiny Aegislash
• New Orleans Saints – Serperior
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Dhelmise
• Houston Texans – Tauros
• Indianapolis Colts – Ponyta
• Atlanta Falcons – Pidgey
• Carolina Panthers – Luxray
• Washington Commanders – Lechonk
• Baltimore Ravens – TM27 (Return)

For the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Gen 5 Steel-type Pokemon called Klang was used as a fitting descriptor, owing to Pittsburgh’s long-standing nickname of the Steel City. Other Pokemon featured by the Bengals as facsimiles for the teams they will face this coming NFL season include Magikarp for the Miami Dolphins, Persian for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Gen 9 Hog Pokemon Lechonk for the Washington Commanders. Lechonk’s inclusion is a reference to Major Tuddy, the Commanders’ costumed mascot introduced in 2023.

However, the Bengals used a peculiar point of comparison for one of their fiercest division rivals, the Baltimore Ravens. Rather than use a raven-like Pokemon like Murkrow or Corviknight, the Bengals chose TM27 (Return) as a descriptor for their Baltimore-based foes. In most Pokemon games, Return is a Normal-type move that becomes more powerful if the user has a high friendship rating with its trainer. Although Return can be a nifty TM to utilize in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, it has not been a usable move since Gen 8 and onward. It is currently unclear why Return was chosen to represent the Ravens on the Bengals’ schedule.

In response to the Bengals’ Pokemon comparisons, some fans compared the Cincinnati NFL squad to powerful Fire-type Pokemon like Incineroar and Arcanine. The Bengals and the rest of the NFL’s teams will see their full schedules, including dates and kickoff times, revealed during a special NFL Network presentation on Thursday, May 14, at 8:00 PM Eastern.