The NFL announced that the 2024 schedule will be released in May, but an exact date hasn’t been revealed yet. With the schedule release approaching, Donny Football of 93.7 The Fan pointed out that the Pittsburgh Steelers very well could start the season on the road for the first two weeks. Why is that? It has to do with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Steelers and Pirates share many things across their shared North Shore home. Chiefly among those concerns is parking, where the teams both sell passes to the ALCO Parking lots and garages that dot the North Shore between the stadiums.
Between the parking and other related concerns, the tenants of the two North Shore stadiums have not played at the same time (for regular season games anyway) since they opened in 2001.
The Pirates are at home on both Sunday, Sept. 8 and 15, with 1:35 p.m. starts against the Washington Nationals and Kansas City Royals. They’re also at home on Monday, Sept. 9. Unless the Steelers’ home opener is a Week 1 Sunday Night Football game or a Week 2 Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football or Monday Night Football game, they will be waiting until Week 3 to play at Acrisure Stadium.
Opening the season on the road has been a common occurrence for the Steelers. Last season was the first time in nine years that Pittsburgh hosted a Week 1 game.
The team itself has very little say in where and when it will play. President Art Rooney II can make specific requests to the NFL, but that doesn’t mean they will be granted, and the Steelers have frequently had other priorities in those areas — like asking to host the Las Vegas Raiders on Christmas Eve in 2022 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception.
And there are many seasons where the Steelers’ preference would be wholly irrelevant.
“Well, we’ve been on the road a lot, that’s for sure,” Rooney said in 2022. “I think we need to talk to Pirates about their schedule. I think that contributes to it a little bit.”
In addition to their AFC North opponents, the Pittsburgh Steelers will face the AFC West and NFC East in 2024. They’ll also play the Indianapolis Colts, New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons.
On paper, the Steelers toughest game in 2024 is against the back-to-back Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. Overall, they’ll have the third-toughest strength of schedule in 2024, with their opponents holding a combined win percentage of .533. Only the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens have a tougher strength of schedule.
The Steelers will face five playoff teams from last year in the Chiefs, Ravens, Browns, Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys. Every team in the AFC North last year had a winning, record so that explains why the top three teams with the toughest strength of schedule are from said division.
Strength of schedule is just something on paper, as teams can drastically change from year-to-year. The boost that head coach DeMeco Ryans and quarterback C.J. Stroud gave to the Houston Texans is a prime example.
Below is the Steelers’ 2024 opponents and the home/away slots.
Home: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, New York Jets
Away: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Commanders, Atlanta Falcons, Indianapolis Colts
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