Pittsburgh Steelers

Schedule released: Steelers open season on road at Cleveland

The NFL released its 2018 regular season schedule on Thursday night and, as usual, the Steelers schedule is full of marquee matchups and prime-time games, but for the first time in a few seasons, no Thanksgiving or Christmas Day games. The Steelers made that request from the NFL.

The defending AFC North champions will open the 2018 season on the road against Todd Haley and the Cleveland Browns. Traditionally, the Steelers are used to finishing the season with Cleveland, but this time it’s how they’ll start the season.

Steelers Schedule Announcement

The NFL is announcing its schedule for all 32 teams tonight, and WPXI Alby Oxenreiter and Dejan Kovacevic are breaking down the Steelers' opponents and how the schedule affects their chances at a seventh Lombardi Trophy. https://on.wpxi.com/2Hd216w

Posted by WPXI-TV Pittsburgh on Thursday, April 19, 2018

The home opener is the following week, Sept. 16, when they host the Kansas City Chiefs.

With the Steelers’ success often comes a chance to be the showcase in prime time for several games over the course of the season and 2018 is no different. And some good news for those who don’t like to stay up too late: the prime time game start times are moving up a little bit.

Sunday Night Football games will now start at 8:20 p.m. instead of 8:30 p.m. Thursday and Monday night games will also move up their start times a little bit.

The Steelers will be on WPXI three times this season: Sept. 30 for a home game against the Ravens; Nov. 18 for a playoff rematch at the Jacksonville Jaguars; and Dec. 9, when they head out west to take on the Oakland Raiders.

The season features more airplane travel time for the Steelers than last season. The Steelers traveled no further away than Kansas City in 2017. The 2018 season features road trips to Denver, Oakland, Jacksonville, Tampa and New Orleans, as well as division opponents Baltimore, Cleveland and Cincinnati.

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Circle Dec.16 on your calendars. The Steelers will take on the defending AFC Champion New England Patriots at Heinz Field.

With the game being late in the season, homefield advantage could once again be on the line. Last season was the “Jesse James non-catch” game, where the Steelers thought they had come back to defeat the Patriots, only to be disappointed by a call that led to rule changes this offseason.

Fox and the NFL Network will split the Thursday Night Football slate this season, with Steelers Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw being part of the pre-game crew.

The Steelers' Thursday night game this year will be Nov. 8, when they host the Carolina Panthers.

The Steelers will wrap up the season with a home game against the Bengals.

Now that the NFL schedule is in place, up next is the NFL Draft starting next Thursday night. The Steelers draft 28th in the first round.