The last time the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens matched up came in Week 18 at Acrisure Stadium with the AFC North division title on the line.
Thanks to a wide-right kick from Baltimore’s Tyler Loop as time expired, the Steelers won the division and made the playoffs.
Things have drastically changed since then. Mike Tomlin resigned after the Steelers’ playoff loss to the Houston Texans, and John Harbaugh was fired by the Ravens.
Now, Jesse Minter is the head man in Baltimore, while Mike McCarthy was hired to replace Tomlin. As much as things change though, they remain the same. It’s still Steelers-Ravens, and their next matchup in 2026 is one of the most highly anticipated games this season for NFL.com’s Eric Edholm.
In a piece ranking the top 10 games of 2026, Steelers-Ravens lands at No. 4.
“When these dyed-in-the-wool rivals face off for the first time next season, it will mark a significant turning of the page. Neither John Harbaugh nor Mike Tomlin will be stalking the sideline for these teams for the first time in nearly two decades,” Edholm writes of the matchup. “Now Mike McCarthy and Jesse Minter are set to pilot the next phase of the rivalry. Coming off an injury-plagued and frustrating season, [Lamar] Jackson will look to reassert his dominance. But who’ll be quarterbacking for the Steelers? [Aaron] Rodgers remains in limbo.
“We might know the entire NFL schedule before he makes any decisions.”
While the coaching staffs are almost entirely new in both cities, many of the big-name players remain, from Cameron Heyward, T.J. Watt, DK Metcalf and more in Pittsburgh, to Lamar Jackson, Marlon Humphrey and Mark Andrews in Baltimore. That star power still makes this a hotly contested matchup every year.
There’s a hatred here, too, but a healthy one built on respect. At least, that was the case under Tomlin and Harbaugh.
Will that change under Minter and McCarthy? That seems unlikely. The two teams are still at the top of the AFC North, and both are fundamentally built in similar fashion. Almost every game is close, and that should be the case once again in 2026.
We’ll see when and where the first matchup is once the schedule is released, but one thing is certain: all eyes will be on it.
Recommended for you