A.J. Green and company have some heady competition in the upcoming preseason.
Nearly ten years to the day Carson Palmer made his first NFL start as a Bengal, he meets his old team this August in a nationally-televised game in Arizona that highlights Cincinnati's preseason schedule released by the NFL on Wednesday.
The games may not count, but the competition is going to add up.
Along with the 10-win Cardinals, the Bengals open the preseason on the road against a playoff team in Kansas City and close it at home against another one when AFC South champ Indianapolis comes to town in the traditional preseason finale.
The other Paul Brown Stadium game brings in the Jets, like the Colts, a team the Bengals beat at PBS last year in the regular season.
Season tickets are available now through the Bengals Ticket Hotline at 866-621-8383 (TDTD) or online clicking here.
As the Bengals prepare their bid for a fourth straight trip to the playoffs, the lineup of preseason foes had an aggregate 40-24 record (.625 winning percentage) in the 2013 regular season. The Colts and Chiefs were both 11-5, Arizona barely missed the playoffs, and the Jets were 8-8.
The only dates set are the Sunday NBC game against the Cardinals (8 p.m.-Cincinnati's Channel 5) on Aug. 24 and the finale against the Colts Thursday, Aug. 28 in a time to be announced. The opener in Kansas City is on the weekend of Aug. 7-11 and the home opener against the Jets follows on the weekend of Aug. 14-18. Specific dates and times are expected later this month.
Palmer, a two-time Pro Bowler in Cincinnati before the Bengals traded him to the Raiders during the 2011 season, has played just once against the team that took him No. 1 overall in 2003 and the Bengals handed Oakland a 34-10 loss at PBS on Nov. 25, 2012. They should see a lot of him in this matchup since the third preseason game is traditionally billed as the dress rehearsal for the regular season.
The opener on the road also brings a little history. The Bengals' first game ever was a 1968 preseason game against the Chiefs in a 38-14 loss at the University of Cincinnati's Nippert Stadium. Now Cincinnati opens the preseason on the road for the seventh time in the last eight years at Kansas City in their first preseason game against the Chiefs since the 1988 Super Bowl season.
To view the preseason schedule click here.
