The Pittsburgh Steelers finish the 2024 season with a brutal eight-game gauntlet. All six of their AFC North games will be played in that span, too. It’s the hardest final eight games in the NFL, according to Warren Sharp of Sharp Football.
Colin Cowherd of FS1 thinks it’s the toughest late-season schedule that he’s ever seen.
“That is the toughest schedule I have ever seen, (from) Thanksgiving on, in league history,” Cowherd said.
“Did you see the last six quarterbacks Pittsburgh faces?” Cowherd added. “[Joe] Burrow, Deshaun Watson, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, [Patrick] Mahomes, and Burrow. Mike Tomlin is going to be on network broadcasting. And, by the way, I predict he’ll be great. I’ve talked to two network execs who would hire Mike Tomlin tomorrow.”
Steelers safery and first-team All-Pro special teams ace Miles Killebrew acknowledged the challenges of the schedule in an interview with Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he’s taking the Mike Tomlin “smile in the face of adversity” approach to it.
He told Dulac, “You’re not going to hear me complain too much about that.”
Killebrew’s biggest issue with the schedule appears to be the Christmas Day game against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 16, which falls on a Wednesday.
“When you’re playing games on Thursday, on Wednesday, on Christmas, three games in 10 days. When you start to get into that territory, along with 18 games, it does get pretty difficult,” Killebrew said.
The Steelers will play three games in 1o days, all against teams that won 11 or more games in 2023. They play at the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, Dec. 15, at the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday, Dec. 21 and finish the gauntlet against the Kansas City Chiefs on Wednesday, Dec. 25.
The NFL adjusted two weeks’ worth of schedules in order to play on Christmas when it falls on a Wednesday. Netflix will reportedly pay $150 million for the two games on Christmas Day. Last year’s the three NFL Christmas Day games ranked among the top 25 most viewed TV programs in 2023.