A couple of weeks ago, the schedule for the 2025 NFL season came out. For the Pittsburgh Steelers, there are a few quirks. They’ll play the first regular-season game in Dublin against the Minnesota Vikings and close the season with one of the toughest stretches in the league. To the disappointment of some, the Steelers also have their bye in Week 5.
The Steelers’ bye week comes right after their international game against the Vikings. Typically, the league schedules bye weeks for teams returning from an overseas game, so many figured that’s the reason for the Steelers’ bye week coming so early. However, NFL VP of Broadcast Planning and Scheduling Mike North claims that’s not a rule of thumb anymore.
“When we were first kind of dipping our toe into the water on international games, we were incredibly accommodating about byes,” North said Wednesday night on 93.7 The Fan. “But if you think about it, like for the Steelers for instance, going over to Dublin, playing in the afternoon and then coming back, they’re probably back in their facility by midnight. So these international games, at least in the UK and Europe, they’re becoming a little bit more routine. So we’ve gotten rid of the rule.”
With that in mind, it feels even more unlucky that the Steelers got their bye in Week 5. For comparison, the Cleveland Browns, who play the Vikings in London in Week 5, don’t come home to a bye week. They play the Steelers the following Sunday and follow that with games against both the Dolphins and Patriots before their bye in Week 9.
So, it does feel a little unlucky that Pittsburgh got such an early bye week. Considering how hard the back half of their schedule looks, a bye week toward the middle or end of the year would have suited the Steelers much better. An early bye is certainly not something they requested, but the Steelers don’t have any choice but to overcome that.
“Now, the byes fall where they fall,” North said. “And I don’t know if the Steelers were happy with their bye in Week 5. They get their Thursday game, coming a little bit later. So you get like, that mini bye after the Thursday.”
The Thursday game North is referring to comes in Week 7, when the Steelers visit the Bengals. Then they have a week and a half before hosting the Packers. North mentions that they get their bye “later” but even Week 7 is early. And while a Thursday night game does give some extra rest for the next week, it still cuts down the amount of rest from the prior week. The Steelers play the Browns at home in Week 6, giving them just three days of rest in between games.
At the end of the day, there are a few things to complain about regarding the 2025 schedule. There’s the brutal stretch to end the year, and the Steelers’ early bye week as well. However, if Pittsburgh is going to make any noise in 2025, it will have to overcome adversity anyway.
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