“They deserve it. You’ve played your way into these windows,” North says. “An MVP quality quarterback and superstar wide receivers, and we play exciting games. Both Ravens-Bengals games last year were spectacular. We wanted to make sure that we ended up with at least one of them in primetime this year. We got it. I’m sure Bengals fans would have preferred it in Cincinnati, but it should be fun for you guys to ruin Baltimore’s Thanksgiving.

“One way to ensure a little extra mustard on those is to make them division games. And you see how big we went on Thanksgiving this year. When you start the day with Green Bay-Detroit, and you come back with KC-Dallas in the middle, you needed something for NBC Thursday night to kind of fit with that motif, if you will. And that’s how we ended up with Bengals-Ravens.”

Besides the Monday Nighter in Denver, North is most looking forward to the Bengals’ 4:25 game in Buffalo on Dec. 7. The folks at FOX have expressed their appreciation for one of those spicy AFC matchups they always long. How high are the ratings going to be with Tom Brady talking about Burrow and Josh Allen?

“When you talk about Bengals-Buffalo, that sounds like Sunday night football, or maybe it sounds like a 4:25 Sunday afternoon game on CBS,” North says.

“(FOX was) really, I don’t want to say surprised, because they knew it was possible, but they were really excited to see a game like Buff-Cincy on their schedule. That’s a rarity, too.”

That’s the last of the Bengals’ 4:25 games. The first two come against NFC North powers in back-to-back games. On Oct. 5, the Lions are at Paycor Stadium, also on FOX, and the next week the Bengals go to Green Bay on CBS.

Just as good as a primetime game when it comes to exposure, North says.

“You also have to remember the way we think about it in that office. It’s not just about primetime, it’s also about the 4:25 Sunday afternoon games,” North says. “Those are still the most watched windows that we have. That average is still higher than anything we do in primetime, so they pick up an extra 4:25 home exposure with Detroit coming in.”

As for the possible flex games, North sees the Bengals’ final two games of the year at Paycor against the NFC West Cardinals and the AFC North rival Browns with Arizona viewed as an up-and-coming team boasting the NFL’s fifth-best offense challenging the Bengals’ No. 1 pass offense.

Both games are to be determined and North only has to go back to the final week last year when the TBDs went in the Saturday 4:30 and 8 p.m. slots filled by AFC North games with the Bengals’ win over the Steelers in primetime.

“Two of the last three years, the Sunday night game in Week 17 came out of the TBD pool,” North says. “What do any of us know here eight months out? But Cincy has been right there the last few years. If you had to pick a team you thought was going to be playoff relevant in week 16, 17, or 18,” the Bengals are on the list.