Report: NFL Schedule Expected to Be Released on May 15

The full 2024 NFL schedule is currently slated to be released at 8 p.m. on May 15, per a memo released to teams on Tuesday afternoon from executive Hans Schroeder, according to Ben Fischer of the Sports Business Journal.

Teams had been expecting the schedule this week on Thursday. Fischer states that the reason for delay was not mentioned in the memo.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk speculates that the league’s decision to play two games on Christmas Day, which falls on a Wednesday this year, has pushed things back.

“The most obvious source of the complication is the fairly recent decision to play two games on Wednesday, December 25 — after the league insisted for months that it wouldn’t wedge games onto Christmas when it lands on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. Between picking the teams to play on Christmas and selling the broadcast rights to the games and then having those same four teams play the preceding Saturday, the plan might have thrown a wrench into the gears,” Florio wrote.

NEWS: The full @NFL schedule is currently slated to be released at 8pm ET on May 15, per memo to teams this afternoon from exec Hans Schroeder.

Teams had been expecting this week, Thursday. Reason for delay not mentioned in memo.

— Ben Fischer (@BenFischerSBJ) May 7, 2024

In addition to their AFC North opponents, the Pittsburgh Steelers will face the AFC West and NFC East in 2024. They’ll also play the Indianapolis Colts, New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons.

On paper, the Steelers toughest game in 2024 is against the back-to-back Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. Overall, they’ll have the third-toughest strength of schedule in 2024, with their opponents holding a combined win percentage of .533. Only the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens have a tougher strength of schedule.

The Steelers will face five playoff teams from last year in the Chiefs, Ravens, Browns, Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys. Every team in the AFC North last year had a winning, record so that explains why the top three teams with the toughest strength of schedule are from said division.

Strength of schedule is just something on paper, as teams can drastically change from year-to-year. The boost that head coach DeMeco Ryans and quarterback C.J. Stroud gave to the Houston Texans is a prime example.

Donny Football of 93.7 The Fan pointed out that the Pittsburgh Steelers very well could start the season on the road for the first two weeks. Why is that? It has to do with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Steelers and Pirates share many things across their shared North Shore home. Chiefly among those concerns is parking, where the teams both sell passes to the ALCO Parking lots and garages that dot the North Shore between the stadiums.

Between the parking and other related concerns, the tenants of the two North Shore stadiums have not played at the same time (for regular season games anyway) since they opened in 2001.

The Pirates are at home on both Sunday, Sept. 8 and 15, with 1:35 p.m. starts against the Washington Nationals and Kansas City Royals. They’re also at home on Monday, Sept. 9. Unless the Steelers’ home opener is a Week 1 Sunday Night Football game or a Week 2 Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football or Monday Night Football game, they will be waiting until Week 3 to play at Acrisure Stadium.

Below is the Steelers’ 2024 opponents and the home/away slots.

Home: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, New York Jets

Away: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Commanders, Atlanta Falcons, Indianapolis Colts