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Breaking down the Steelers’ 2026 regular season schedule

With the 2026 NFL regular season schedule finally, officially released, fans now know who the Pittsburgh Steelers will host at Acrisure Stadium and who they will face on the road. There are a handful of opponents the Steelers haven’t gone head-to-head with in a few years. Pittsburgh has some key primetime games on the schedule, including one on Black Friday. We break down the entire schedule for Steelers Nation.

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Prime-time matchups

The Steelers, under new head coach Mike McCarthy, will play several prime-time games.

In Week 4 the Steelers will be on the road against the Cleveland Browns for Thursday Night Football.

Week 7 has Pittsburgh flying overseas to Paris (France) to face the New Orleans Saints; the Steelers will be the visiting team. The game will be the first regular season NFL game ever held in France.

In Week 10, the Steelers will travel to Cincinnati to play the Bengals during Sunday Night Football.

Weeks 12-14 are all prime-time games. First, the Steelers will host the Denver Broncos in a Black Friday game on November 27. The next week they will host the Houston Texans for Sunday Night Football. To cap off the prime-time appearances, Pittsburgh travels to Jacksonville to play the Jaguars on Monday Night Football.

With the bevy of prime-time games, Steelers fans will need to – once again – get familiar with a number of streaming services in order to catch every game this upcoming season.

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AFC North Divisional Games

With analysts identifying the AFC North as a highly-competitive division that will affect playoff seedings and outcomes, the Steelers will see their rivals in the following games:

  • Week 3: Bengals (in Pittsburgh)
  • Week 4: Browns (in Cleveland)
  • Week 8: Browns (in Pittsburgh)
  • Week 10: Bengals (in Cincinnati)
  • Week 15: Ravens (in Pittsburgh)
  • Week 18: Ravens (in Baltimore)

If you think the league isn’t trying to force another divisional beat-down between Pittsburgh and Baltimore, you aren’t seeing the big picture. Late divisional games have become the norm for the Steelers in recent years, and 2026 is likely to once again have playoff implications.

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Long time, no see opponents

With every division playing at least four non-conference games per season, there are times sone teams just don’t see each other often. That is the case for the Steelers early in the upcoming season.

In Week 1, the Steelers open up the season at home against the Atlanta Falcons. It will be Pittsburgh’s second time since 2014 that they host an opponent in Week 1. The two teams last met in 2024, but met last in Pittsburgh in 2018).

Their other non-conference games against the NFC South are as follows:

  • Week 6 @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (last met in Tampa Bay in 2018)
  • Week 16 vs Carolina Panthers (last met in Pittsburgh in 2018)
  • The Saints game will be in Paris, as mentioned above, in Week 7

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Rounding out the schedule

The remaining opponents the Steelers will go head-to-head against are as follows:

  • Week 5: Indianapolis Colts (in Pittsburgh)
  • Week 11: Philadelphia Eagles (in Philly)
  • Week 17: Tennessee Titans (in Tennessee)

The Steelers will get a true mid-season “bye” in 2026. That falls on Week 9.

Pre-season games

The Steelers will play three pre-season games. On August 13, Pittsburgh will host the Green Bay Packers. On August 21, the Steelers host the New York Jets. The team wraps up the pre-season on the road against the Buffalo Bills.

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