The Panthers have one set of joint practices scheduled for this summer and they’d like to add more to the schedule.
Head coach Dave Canales said at a Thursday press conference that the team has reached out to the Steelers and Texans about working out together in August. They will be in Houston for a game in the second week of the preseason and they’ll host the Steelers in their final preseason game.
Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski announced earlier in the offseason that his team would practice with the Panthers ahead of the preseason opener for both clubs.
The Panthers practiced with the Jets last summer during Canales’s first preseason as their head coach.
It’s still not clear whether the Steelers will be getting a new quarterback. It is clear that they’ll be getting a new look or two in 2025.
Owner Art Rooney II has confirmed that the Steelers will have a new throwback uniform, along with a new second helmet. Via Steelers.com, Rooney said the outfit will debut in prime time.
“We are going to have a new throwback uniform this year, and with a new helmet to go with it,” Rooney said. “We’re planning to wear our new throwbacks for the Packers game on Sunday night, Oct. 26. It’ll be fun to wear our throwbacks against one of the older franchises in the league — that just seems to be appropriate.”
In the past, the Steelers have worn a yellow helmet. The alternate helmets for the Steelers and four other teams are reportedly due to be unveiled this summer.
It seems appropriate for Rodgers to wear a yellow helmet in his first ever game against the Packers, for whom he wore a yellow helmet for years.
Rooney also said the team’s Color Rush uniform is expected to be worn during the Monday night home game against the Dolphins, on December 15. It also would be fitting for the late season visit from the Dolphins to find a way to properly commemorate this unforgettable moment from a Monday night game played 18 years ago.
Steelers owner Art Rooney II lamented the team’s late-season night games after the schedule was released on Wednesday night, but the team will be playing at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday in four of their first five games of the year.
That’s related to the ongoing uncertainty about whether quarterback Aaron Rodgers will be in a Steelers uniform. The Jets were scheduled for Monday night openers the last two seasons and had a slew of other standalone and short-week games as the league tried to spotlight the four-time MVP. An Achilles injury in 2023 and poor play in 2024 meant that didn’t work out for the league, the Jets or their broadcast partners.
Rodgers is expected to sign with the Steelers, but NFL vice president of broadcast planning and scheduling Mike North told Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports that the league did not take that hypothetical into consideration when they decided to schedule a Steelers visit to the Jets in the season opener. If they had, North suggested that the Steelers would be featured more prominently than they will be in the 1 p.m. ET window.
“You’ll see Pittsburgh at the Jets are on CBS at 1 o’clock in the afternoon in Week 1 along with seven other NFL games all at the same time,” North said. “I think if the league knew, we probably would’ve scheduled that game for a national television window. So at worst, it’s Justin Fields against his old team. At best, it’s Aaron Rogers going up against one of his old teams. Look at what we did with Aaron Rogers’ first game the last two years. If we knew something, I think you would’ve seen it reflected in the schedule. That being said, still a good game.”
The Steelers are scheduled for four night games and two games in the 4:25 p.m. ET window, which is a big difference from what the Jets schedule looked like with Rodgers. That may be appealing to the quarterback, although flex scheduling could make things look a lot different when all is said and done.
The Steelers answered one of the two big questions looming over the team on Wednesday when they learned their schedule for the 2025 season.
It begins with an immediate reference to the other big question as the Steelers will be in New Jersey to face the Jets in Week One. They’ll likely play against former Steeler Justin Fields and the general feeling is that former Jet Aaron Rodgers will be leading the Pittsburgh offense, but everyone’s still waiting for official word of Rodgers’s plan.
If part of the holdup was a desire to avoid the slew of primetime games that the Jets were scheduled for during their two seasons with Rodgers, he’ll likely be pleased with the schedule. The Steelers are playing on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET in four of their first five games before playing on Thursday night in Week Seven and Sunday night in Week Eight. They’ll be in Los Angeles on a Sunday night in Week 10 and they’ll host the Dolphins on Monday night in Week 15.
After the schedule was announced, Steelers owner Art Rooney II said he doesn’t have “major complaints” but did have some quibbles with the L.A. trip and timing of those standalone games.
“We’re not crazy about having the night games late in the season,” Rooney said, via the team’s website. “It happens, and it’s not a big, big deal, but we would prefer not to have too many night games late in the season. Obviously I also look for the long trips and how they fall, and unfortunately we have a Sunday night game in Los Angeles. Not crazy about the playing those night games on the West Coast.”
If Rodgers is a Steeler and things go better than they did with the Jets, Rooney may have more night games to complain about due to flex scheduling but, for now, there are just four of them on the slate.
After the Dolphins lost at Green Bay on a cold Thanksgiving night, Miami linebacker Jordyn Brooks said the elements made them “soft.” Brooks’s comments served only to harden the narrative that the Dolphins don’t do well when weather is a factor.
This year, the Dolphins will likely have three opportunities to change the narrative. They face the Jets in New Jersey on December 7, the Steelers in Pittsburgh on Monday night, December 15, and the Patriots in New England in Week 18, on January 3 or 4.
Miami could get lucky, what with global warming and all, for one or more of those games. They also could get unlucky, if it’s unseasonable on October 19 in Cleveland.
The good news is the Dolphins go to Buffalo early, for a Thursday night game in Week 3. Even by Western New York standards, snow would be a surprise on September 18.
Last year, Aaron Rodgers and the Jets had a slew of early-season standalone games, including a pair of Sunday-Thursday short weeks. This year, Aaron Rodgers (maybe) and the Steelers enter the schedule with only four prime-time games.
The Steelers will visit the Bengals on Thursday night in Week 7, before hosting the Packers under the lights and in front of the NBC cameras in Week 8.
In Week 10, the Steelers face the Chargers in L.A. on Sunday Night Football. In Week 15, they host the Dolphins on Monday night.
Nine Steelers games are set for a 1:00 p.m. ET kickoff, including the Week 1 opener at the Jets and Week 12 at the Bears. It’s odd, to say the least, that Rodgers’s potential return to MetLife Stadium wasn’t earmarked for a standalone spot.
Week 1 isn’t the only potential revenge game for a prominent new member of the Steelers. In Week Two, they host receiver DK Metcalf’s Seahawks.
We know Metcalf is a Steeler. We still don’t know whether Rodgers will be. If it happens, expect it to occur before the OTAs begin on May 26.
For the third straight season, Aaron Rodgers will be starting the season in a game involving the Jets.
If he signs with the Steelers. And if the report that is circulating regarding the Week 1 schedule is accurate.
Matt O’Leary of the Just Jets podcast reports that the Jets will open the 2025 season by hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers. If accurate, it means Rodgers will be back in New Jersey, right out of the gates.
First, Rodgers has to sign with the Steelers. It’s widely believed that he will.
Colin Cowherd recently suggested that Rodgers is waiting to see the schedule before making a final decision. If that’s accurate, would it make him more likely or less likely to pick Pittsburgh?
Again, if the report is accurate, it’s a very juicy option for Week 1. Too juicy, it seems, to be tucked into the full slate of early games.
Even without Rodgers on the Steelers, former Steelers quarterback Justin Fields will likely be starting for the Jets.
If Rodgers joins the Steelers, he’ll also see the Packers (in Pittsburgh) and the Vikings (in Ireland) in 2025. And he’ll get a chance to return to Chicago, where he can once again remind Bears fans that he still owns them.
It all becomes official at 8:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday night. If Rodgers hopes to upstage the schedule release, he can announce his intention to join the Steelers 15 minutes or so before the full slate of 272 games is announced.
George Pickens was the Steelers’ leading wide receiver the past two seasons. He just turned 24 and still is on his rookie contract, counting $3.656 million against the cap in 2025.
Yet, the Steelers traded him anyway.
Anytime Mike Tomlin trades a wide receiver, it’s buyer beware.
The Steelers traded Santonio Holmes in 2010 for a fifth-rounder, Martavis Bryant in 2018 for a third-rounder, Antonio Brown in 2019 for third- and fifth-rounders, Chase Claypool in 2023 for a second-rounder, Diontae Johnson in 2024 for Donte Jackson and a pick swap and now Pickens for a third and a pick swap. None performed as well with their new team.
That was a point Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward made on his Not Just Football Pod.
“I think we’ve got to look at the track record of trading wide receivers,” Heyward said. “There’s been some good history behind this and when to do it, what to expect. I was looking at a stat. There’s only been like three or four receivers that made it past the rookie contracts with the Steelers. It’s crazy.
“You had AB; you had Diontae Johnson; you had Hines Ward; I think you had JuJu [Smith-Schuster] for another year. For the most part, they know when to re-sign and when to trade, and we’ll see what happens. We could be a better team because of it.”
Heyward woke up to the news like everyone else did May 7.
He called it a surprise, though the Steelers appeared done with Pickens when they traded a second-round pick to the Seahawks and invested a five-year, $150 million contract in receiver DK Metcalf.
“I didn’t know anything about it. . . . I woke up the next morning, and he had been traded,” Heyward said. “Was I surprised? Yeah, but the game is the game. I know it benefits both teams. We get another third-round pick. They get a wide receiver to go along with CeeDee Lamb. Would I have liked to see George and DK play together? Yeah, but hopefully there’s something in the works. I don’t know.”
The Vikings’ short-straw road trip to Europe for back-to-back games against the Steelers in Ireland and the Browns in London comes with a competitive advantage. Minnesota will have two fewer traditional road games than they would have had in 2025.
Like all NFC teams in the odd-numbered years, the Vikings have eight home games and nine road games. By playing two of those games on a neutral site, the Vikings will have only seven true road games.
With none of the other NFC North teams selected for international road games in 2025, the Lions, Bears, and Packers will each have nine usual road games.
The Rams, Commanders, and Falcons are the only other NFC teams that will have a neutral-site road game.
So, yes, although the Vikings’ schedule will be disrupted by playing two games on consecutive Sundays on foreign soil, they will entire truly hostile territory two fewer times than the rest of the division, and most of the conference. And while it won’t matter if the Vikings lose both games, they’re getting an enhanced opportunity to win by not having the play in Pittsburgh or Cleveland. Especially if either or both of those games otherwise would have been scheduled for later in the season, when weather could be a factor.
The dome-team Lions, in contrast, will play their two AFC North road games at Baltimore and Cincinnati. If either or both happen after Halloween, the elements could add to the overall difficulty — along with the fact that they’ll be facing the Ravens and Bengals in their normal home environments.
When it’s time to convert the final standings into a seven-team playoff tree, the Vikings could have an edge. It won’t matter if they aren’t generally “good” in 2025. If they’re good enough to compete for a postseason berth, the two games on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean could be the difference between winning the division or finishing second — or between making the playoffs or missing out.
The NFL announced today which six games will be played in Europe in 2025 — including two in a row for the Vikings.
All six games will be played on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. ET, which means they will be afternoon games in Europe and early-mornings for American fans. In the U.S., all six games will air on NFL Network.
A new twist this year is that the Vikings will play in Dublin one week and then play in London a week later, which could function for the NFL as an experiment to see how travel within Europe goes. The league is exploring playing more games in Europe, and possibly even locating a team or multiple teams across the pond, and every new scheduling wrinkle is a step toward determining the logistics of that. The Vikings will be the first NFL team ever to play back-to-back-to-back games in three countries, going from the United States to Ireland to England.
The six games in Europe are:
September 28: Vikings at Steelers in Croke Park in Dublin.
October 5: Vikings at Browns at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
October 12: Broncos at Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
October 19: Rams at Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in London.
November 9: Falcons at Colts at Olympic Stadium in Berlin.
November 16: Commanders at Dolphins at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid.
The NFL has also scheduled a Chargers “home” game on Friday, September 5, at Corinthians Arena in Sao Paulo. The Chargers’ opponent has not yet been announced.
