The Pittsburgh Steelers are fresh off what can only be described as a weird season. The team turned over its entire quarterback room last offseason and put their football eggs in the proverbial baskets of Justin Fields and Russell Wilson.
Neither one impressed and are both now in New York - on different teams.
Entering 2025, speculation is that veteran Aaron Rodgers will be under center ... at some point, and it certainly feels like the NFL schedule makers know something we don't.
If the Steelers want to compete with the rest of the AFC North, they'll need a fast start to the season, regardless of who's under center. Like last season, they'll open on the road, heading to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford for the first time since the opener in 2020, to take on Fields and the New York Jets.
It's a game that would be so much more interesting with Rodgers in tow, as he'd be facing his former team in the first game of the season.
There are therefore mysteries here.
But there are also opportunities.
Three of the first four games of the year are against teams that missed the postseason last year, and then Pittsburgh enjoys a Week 5 Bye.
So if the team can jump out to a 4-0 or 3-1 start, it could do wonders for a schedule that gets increasingly tougher as the year progresses.
The Dec. 7 matchup with Baltimore, who strung the Steelers up in the playoffs last year, 28-14 in the Wild Card Round, could be an important game for the AFC North title, and therefore, have playoff implications.
Pittsburgh got steamrolled by the Ravens in the playoffs, and focused on getting more physical through the draft and free agency. They'll have opportunities to test that new physicality throughout the season, but the matchup with Baltimore will truly tell the tale of the Steelers, and possibly dictate the North winner in 2025.