While the Pittsburgh Steelers have known who their 2026 opponents will be for a while, now, they have their official schedule. The schedule release usually means fans will go through and try to predict how their favorite team will do this year. A lot of optimism can usually be found in the offseason, but former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky doesn’t have a lot of hope for the Steelers.
“Find a win after the bye week,” Orlovsky said recently on ESPN’s schedule release show. “If you’re Pittsburgh, find the win. Cincy? You’re not beating Cincy at Cincy. You’re not beating Philly at Philly. You’re not beating Denver. You’re not beating Houston. You’re not beating Jacksonville. You’re not beating Baltimore… I understand seven of their first nine are non-playoff teams.
“But I sit here and I look at this Steelers team, and we don’t know who they’re gonna be under Mike McCarthy and if Aaron’s [Rodgers] gonna be the guy. I continuously believe he will. Five, six wins… They’ve had two top 10 picks since 1990, it’s not normal. But if you go into that bye week and you don’t have a banked set of wins, that’s a brutal final nine… I don’t see easy wins early on. I don’t see any wins late.”
The Steelers’ post-bye week stretch looks like the most intimidating part of their schedule. In order, their first seven games after the bye are against the Cincinnati Bengals, Philadelphia Eagles, Denver Broncos, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Baltimore Ravens, and Carolina Panthers.
That’s six playoff teams from last year, including four division winners. The Bengals are the only team of that bunch that missed the postseason last year, but they shouldn’t be taken lightly. They’re a division foe, and they have one of the league’s most talented offenses.
After that, the Steelers finish the year against the Tennessee Titans and Ravens. The Titans look like the least intimidating team in the back half of Pittsburgh’s schedule. They’ve gone 3-14 in each of the last two seasons. That’s probably the easiest game to project the Steelers to win after their bye.
However, that doesn’t mean Orlovsky is right. The Steelers haven’t finished with fewer than eight wins since the 2003 season. Yes, they have a new head coach, but this isn’t Mike McCarhty’s first rodeo. He’s been the head coach of two other NFL teams.
Also, the Steelers made several improvements to their roster this offseason. They won their division last year. Maybe they won’t repeat that, but they don’t look like a pushover.
Orlovsky predicted that the Steelers would start 0-6 last year if they had Mason Rudolph starting. They had Rodgers under center, and they started 4-2 instead. That included a win over the eventual-AFC-champion New England Patriots. Few people expected the Steelers to win that game, but they beat the odds.
Perhaps Orlovsky will be right about the Steelers this year. However, he’s lost when betting against them before. Mike Tomlin might be gone, but the Steelers are still a talented team.
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