The NFL announced the matchups for its first Thanksgiving Eve game and all three Thanksgiving games ahead of Thursday night’s schedule reveal, so the only thing left to announce for the three-day holiday spread of games was the Black Friday matchup.
That game will feature the Broncos visiting the Steelers in a game that will start at 3 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on Amazon Prime Video.
It will be the first time that either franchise has played a Black Friday game. The NFL first held a game on the day after Thanksgiving in 2023 and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said that the league is considering ways to add a second game.
That is what they’ve done with the Thanksgiving Eve game. It will involve the Packers visiting the Rams on Wednesday night in a game broadcast by Netflix.
Thanksgiving’s schedule will start in Detroit as usual. The Lions will host the Bears at 1 p.m. ET on CBS and the Eagles will visit the Cowboys on Fox at 4:30 p.m. ET. Thursday’s action will conclude with the Chiefs in Buffalo to face the Bills at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC.
The Steelers signed safety Makari Paige to a one-year contract on Wednesday, the team announced.
Paige originally signed with the Giants as a college free agent following the 2025 draft. He spent time on the Giants’ practice squad last season.
He played collegiately at the University of Michigan, where he appeared in 53 games. Paige was on the Wolverines’ 2023 national championship team.
He recorded 135 total tackles, including 64 solo stops, 11 passes defensed, three interceptions, two tackles for a loss, a sack and a fumble recovery.
In a corresponding move, the Steelers released cornerback Cory Trice Jr. with a failed physical.
The Steelers selected Trice in the seventh round of the 2023 draft, and he played six games with one start in 2024 in his only regular-season action. Trice had knee and hamstring injuries that kept him sidelined the rest of his time in Pittsburgh, including a torn ACL during training camp in his rookie campaign.
All of the international matchups for the 2026 NFL season were announced on Wednesday morning.
We already knew the first two games on the schedule. The 49ers and Rams will meet in the NFL’s first-ever game in Melbourne, Australia in Week 1 while the Ravens and Cowboys will head to Brazil to play a game in Rio in Week 3.
There will be three straight weeks of games in London kicking off the next week. The Colts will face the Commanders at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in Week 4 and the Eagles and Jaguars will square off in the same place the next week. The Jaguars will stay in London to take on the Texans at Wembley Stadium in Week 6.
From there, it will be on to Paris for the first time in league history. The Steelers will battle the Saints at Stade de France in Week 7.
The Bengals-Falcons matchup in Madrid in Week 9 was announced earlier this week and it will be followed by a Patriots-Lions clash at Allianz Arena in Munich the next weekend. The NFL’s return to Mexico City will come in Week 11 when the Vikings and the 49ers square off on Sunday Night Football.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has talked about his desire to see the league play international games each week and the NFL is moving closer to that goal in 2026.
With multiple indications that talks are ongoing between the Steelers and quarterback Aaron Rodgers, what are they talking about?
The only significant topic for negotiation in any veteran contract is money — amount and structure. There could be anther subject, in theory.
This is speculation. I haven’t heard anything to substantiate the possibility. But with a vacuum of information regarding Rodgers, the goal is to make sense of what’s happening.
There’s no guarantee the Steelers will be as good or better than they were a year ago, especially with the franchise’s first coaching change in 19 years. If things go poorly, the Steelers may eventually want to give a young quarterback (Will Howard or Drew Allar) live game reps. If that happens, what will they do with Rodgers?
That should be determined now. Even if it’s not part of the official contract (and it can’t be), Rodgers could seek an unofficial commitment that, if he’s ever benched, he’d also be released.
If that happens after the trade deadline, Rodgers would have to pass through waivers. If it’s believed at the time that Rodgers is targeting a potential quarterback-needy team, anyone could block that by putting in a waivers claim.
There’s only one way for Rodgers to emerge from Pittsburgh in the event of a major early-season regression with the freedom to sign anywhere at any time. Rodgers would have to be released before the Tuesday after Week 9.
What if he’s looking for that kind of commitment on the way in? If the Steelers are (for example) 3-6 or worse after the ninth Sunday of the season (assuming their bye comes after Week 9), he’ll be released — without having to ask for it.
This is spitballing. But Rodgers is smart enough to play out the permutations. He’s experienced enough to have a good sense as to whether the sudden change from Mike Tomlin to Mike McCarthy could result in the wheels coming off for the Steelers. He’s prudent enough to want to have a plan for anything/everything.
It would be very prudent to plan for a quick and easy escape hatch, in the event the first year of the Mike McCarthy era starts poorly.
This season, the Saints will host the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in France. Per multiple reports, the opponent will be the Steelers.
The @OzzyNFL account on Twitter, which has been leaking schedule information, posted earlier tonight that Pittsburgh and New Orleans will square off in Paris on October 25. Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer has confirmed the news.
All international games that haven’t been previously announced are due to be disclosed on Wednesday morning. This year, nine games will be played on foreign soil: Three in London, one in Paris, one in Madrid, one in Melbourne, one in Germany, one in Rio de Janeiro, and one in Mexico City.
That’s up from five in 2025. And the league, which currently may stage up to 10 international games under the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL Players Association, hopes to expand that number to 16.
