Both the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns took swings at the Baltimore Ravens in their schedule release videos on Thursday night. Both of these Ohio-based teams missed the mark. If you’re going to make a schedule release video, then yes, you have to take a jab or two at your division rivals- those are the rules.
But at least the Browns made a very unique and clever schedule announcement video, overall, as they modeled it after the wildly popular 1990s video game Street Fighter.
Introducing Street Fighter: CLE!
đšď¸ 2026 Schedule Release pic.twitter.com/aFvc1vMGKx
â Cleveland Browns (@Browns) May 14, 2026
The Browns went heavy on the early ’90s nostalgia, even recreating an old-school video arcade, featuring people in grunge-era clothing and using a camera filter that made you feel like you were in 1993. Cleveland’s social media team laid it on thick, and honestly, too thick, with the ’90s slang. While this was pretty funny in the beginning, towards the end it felt like a bit much. Like they were trying too hard.
After all, some of the slang terms (“tubular,” “rad”) are more 1980s surfer than 1990s Midwestern.
Still, an A- for the effort and the overall concept.
However, when announcing their two matchups with the Ravens, they just referenced the mascot Poe in part 1 and then the docks and crab traps in part two. Destroying crabs, when alluding to a game with Baltimore, is one of the biggest cliches in the NFL schedule release game. Yes, we’ve reached the point where schedule release videos are a game in themselves.
Every matchup tells a story.
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â Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) May 14, 2026
Still, the Browns’ video was much better than the Bengals’ offering, which was dry, vanilla, bland, blah… all of these adjectives work. For the first matchup, the narrator says, “We’re division rivals, you can’t back out of this one” in a direct reference to the Maxx Crosby trade that wasn’t. It’s a huge attempt at a “sick burn,” but it’s really just a big swing-and-miss. Moving on from a deal that wasn’t going to work out (i.e., passing on a trade for a player who wasn’t in the state of health/fitness that you thought he was) is smart business; period.
And when the Chargers alluded to this, in their video, they did so in a much more entertaining way.
For the second matchup, which is on New Year’s Eve, the Bengals reference the ball dropping. To quote fictional character Dr. Frasier Krane: “a bit on the nose, don’t you think?”
Ready to yinzify your DNA, n’at? @laurelhighlandsđş: NFL Schedule Release 8 PM ET on @nflnetworkpic.twitter.com/0w2ZOVvsI7
â Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) May 14, 2026
Both vids were still better than what the Pittsburgh Steelers produced, which was so uninteresting and not entertaining that it’s almost not even worth criticizing.
Almost.
Seriously, it’s way too long, and unless you’re really interested in all the local quirks and inside jokes specific to the city of Pittsburgh, you’ll probably be bored!
This article originally appeared on Ravens Wire: Steelers, Browns fail to roast Ravens in release videos