Steelers Now
The Pittsburgh Steelers will play both of Aaron Rodgers’ former teams during the 2025 season, one in the season opener and the other in prime time on Sunday Night Football. But the NFL was not scheduling the Steelers as if Rodgers will be the team’s starting quarterback.
Rodgers, who remains a free agent, will obviously increase the draw of the Steelers to a national audience, particularly in two potential revenge games against the New York Jets, who cut Rodgers contentiously earlier this year, in Week 1 and the Packers, who he has not faced since leaving in 2022 in Week 8.
But NFL vice president Mike North said the 2025 NFL schedule was made without the idea that Rodgers would definitely be on the Steelers, and that they likely would have gotten even more attention if that was the case.
“You play the hand you’re dealt, and Aaron Rodgers is not the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers,” North said in a conference call with the media on Thursday. “But their sustained success for over a decade here, Coach [Mike] Tomlin’s never had a losing season. The Steelers are always playoff relevant in late down the stretch, and they have a national fan base. So their body of work is what warranted the national television exposure for them, same as probably in previous years.”
The Steelers have four prime time games in 2025, plus another two games in standalone windows: against the Buffalo Bills at 4:25 p.m. on Sunday. Nov. 30 and their 9:30 a.m. kickoff against the Minnesota Vikings in Ireland on Sept. 28.
North did admit that the Packers being one of those prime time games was at least in part because of the chances of Rodgers playing it — but also noted that a rare game between the Packers and Steelers, with probably playoff implications in both conferences, would have been a valuable game, anyway.
“Maybe the one hedge,” North said. “If you put that game in a window where it does become something even bigger, we wouldn’t want to unbalance one of the partners. So if it fell on a Sunday afternoon, for instance, it becomes the dominant story of the day — Aaron’s first game against his old team. So, put in a national window. If Aaron’s the quarterback, it’s a great story. If Aaron’s not the quarterback, it’s still Packers-Steelers, Sunday Night Football in Week 8. … [We] tried to play it down the middle. We don’t know anything more than anybody else.”
In addition to the Packers in Week 8, the Steelers will also have prime time games at the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 7 on Thursday Night Football, in Week 10 at the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football and at home in Week 15 against the Miami Dolphins.
If Rodgers does end up in Pittsburgh, and the Steelers find themselves in the thick of the AFC playoff picture, they could end up with some of their games down the stretch being...
