Special bonus for our readers: look for the full version of our 2018 Pittsburgh Steelers schedule wallpaper pictured above at the end of this article! (Edit: we’ve also added a smartphone version of the schedule too!)

The Pittsburgh Steelers 2018 schedule has been officially announced, and while many of the opponents were already known in advance, the details of when those games would be played have now been made public.

Let’s take a look at who the Steelers play, where they will play, and when they play them, along with some insight to how the 2018 season looks for the organization.

Week	Date	Opponent	Time	TV
Week 1	Sep. 9	at Cleveland Browns	1:00 PM	CBS
Week 2	Sep. 16	Kansas City Chiefs	1:00 PM	CBS
Week 3	Sep. 24	at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Mon.)	8:15 PM	ESPN
Week 4	Sep. 30	Baltimore Ravens	8:20 PM	NBC
Week 5	Oct. 7	Atlanta Falcons *	1:00 PM	FOX
Week 6	Oct. 14	at Cincinnati Bengals *	1:00 PM	CBS
Week 7	Oct. 21	BYE
Week 8	Oct. 28	Cleveland Browns *	1:00 PM	CBS
Week 9	Nov. 4	at Baltimore Ravens *	1:00 PM	CBS
Week 10	Nov. 8	Carolina Panthers (Thurs.)	8:20 PM	FOX/NFLN
Week 11	Nov. 18	at Jacksonville Jaguars *	8:20 PM	NBC
Week 12	Nov. 25	at Denver Broncos *	4:25 PM	CBS
Week 13	Dec. 2	Los Angeles Chargers *	1:00 PM	CBS
Week 14	Dec. 9	at Oakland Raiders *	8:20 PM	NBC
Week 15	Dec. 16	New England Patriots *	4:25 PM	CBS
Week 16	Dec. 23	at New Orleans Saints *	4:25 PM	CBS
Week 17	Dec. 30	Cincinnati Bengals *	1:00 PM	CBS

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AFC North Opponents

Baltimore Ravens (9-7), Cincinnati Bengals (7-9), Cleveland Browns (0-16)

The usual division tilt features a home-and-home series with each of the Steelers three AFC North opponents. Oddly, the Ravens and Bengals (barely) improved upon their 2016 record in 2017. (Cleveland, obviously, did not.) Regardless, the Steelers swept their division last year, and could be in a prime position to do so again.

The Steelers will once again open up with the Browns on the road, likely in an attempt to at least sell some tickets at First Energy Stadium. Baltimore is the recipient of the Steelers on a short week, as the Steelers travel from a Monday Night game in Tampa back home to face their division rival for a Sunday Night game: the first of many primetime matchups for the Steelers this season.

Pittsburgh then closes out the season in a game that might mean more than it has in previous Week 17 division encounters. Over the years, the Steelers had been able to sit starters when playing against the Browns. Should the Bengals compete within the AFC North this season, the same opportunity may not exist in 2018.

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AFC West Opponents

Kansas City Chiefs (10-6), Los Angeles Chargers (9-7), @ Oakland Raiders (6-10), @ Denver Broncos (5-11)

There’s just something about playing Kansas City each year that doesn’t sit well in my stomach, despite the Steelers dominance over them in recent years. I have a feeling, for better or worse, that the Chiefs will be a different team in 2018. That should make for an interesting Heinz Field opener for the 2018 season.

Traveling to Oakland and Denver has its own pitfalls, which are mentioned in my conclusion below. (Spoiler: the Steelers have been miserable playing in those stadiums recently.) Pittsburgh will travel to the Mile High city following a Sunday night rematch with the Jaguars. They also fly to Oakland for another Sunday night game before their revenge game in Week 15 against the Patriots.

Then there’s the Chargers, who appear to be on the upswing after a 9-7 2017 campaign. They could be a surprise team this season. The bad news for them is that, like their home game a few seasons ago, it will still feel like an away game for them! The L.A. game is sandwiched between the Denver and Oakland trips, and should prove to be a challenge.

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NFC South Opponents

@ New Orleans Saints (11-5), Carolina Panthers (11-5),  Atlanta Falcons (10-6), @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-11)

On paper, this could be the toughest slate of games this season as three teams in this division all made the playoffs in 2017.

Usually, I’d say the Saints game is a benefit for the Steelers since the weather isn’t a factor inside a dome stadium. However, the Mercedes-Benz Superdome is a very difficult place to play in, and the Saints always appear to bring their “A” game at home. (At least it’s not being played on Christmas Day this year.)

As I’ll mention again later, the Steelers usually play poorly in Florida. Hopefully they get their act together for Week 3’s Monday Night slate against the Bucs.

The Panthers travel in for a Thursday Night Football “Color Rush” game, which isn’t in their favor: visiting teams overwhelmingly are underdogs with the short week. The only thing working in Carolina’s favor is that the Steelers may have a slugfest at Baltimore days earlier, and aren’t able to 100% recoup in time.

I literally have no comment on the Falcons. That could be a game of mirror images, as both teams are run by defensive-minded coaches and feature strong offenses. I’ll flip a coin in the Steelers favor that it’s being played in Pittsburgh.

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Playoff Qualifiers

New England Patriots (13-3), @ Jacksonville Jaguars (10-6)

With the schedule format following a team’s division (AFC North) and two other divisions (four teams from each of the AFC West and NFC South), the remaining two games on the schedule are filled with division champions from 2017. Since the Steelers won their division, they get two highly anticipated rematches from the previous year.

One is against the New England Patriots, who they’ll have a chance to avenge, nearly a year to the date, at home, after losing in the final seconds of last year’s game with the infamous Jesse James “no catch” ruling.

The other is a road trip to Jacksonville for a big Sunday Night Football game. The Jaguars handed the Steelers two losses, both at Heinz Field, in 2017. With very little primetime exposure over the years, one has to believe “Duval” will be rocking for Week 11.

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Conclusion

I’m not a fan of West Coast travel or playing Florida teams. Over the course of Mike Tomlin’s head coaching tenure in Pittsburgh, the Steelers have dropped some of their most disappointing losses in these scenarios.

Among the letdowns are losses to the Dolphins and Bucs at home. One was a game where Antonio Brown nearly scored with time expired, but his pinkie toe stepped on the white stripe, out of bounds. Another was a home loss with Mike Glennon at quarterback for Tampa Bay.

Then there are the aforementioned losses to the Jaguars last season. Add those to Ben Roethlisberger getting banged up and Lawrence Timmons throwing up in Miami two seasons ago, and I’m not particularly enjoying the outlook against Tampa Bay or Jacksonville at this time of the year.

As for the West Coast, who can forget losses to great quarterbacks such as Tim Tebow (2011 playoffs) in Denver or Terrelle Pryor, when he was still playing under center for the Raiders in 2013.

The Steelers travel to both cities in 2018.

Overall the schedule isn’t bad. I prefer the way it starts with a short road trip to Cleveland and swings back to get a second-season but first-year starter in quarterback Patrick Mahomes for the home opener.

I’ve said my peace about stacking a Florida trip in primetime with a home contest against the Ravens. That should prove to be a character-building block of games to kickoff 2018.

The Patriots rematch looms as the biggest game on the schedule. It’s bookended with trips to Oakland and New Orleans, which won’t make it easy. On the bright side, New England has to come to Heinz Field for their second of a two-game road trip, which sees the Patriots also play in Florida (Miami), for a division opponent that has had the upper hand at times in those contests.

I’m just hoping the Steelers can lock up a playoff berth and potential bye week before Week 17, so the Bengals can’t spoil their health before the postseason begins.

2018 Pittsburgh Steelers Schedule Wallpaper

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Mobile Version Schedule

By popular request we’ve created a mobile version of the Steelers 2018 schedule. You may click on this link to open the image in a new tab/window: 2018 Pittsburgh Steelers schedule mobile wallpaper.