The Pittsburgh Steelers will be taking on a new opportunity during the 2025 season as the team will play the NFL's first regular season game in Ireland. The NFL announced a while ago that the Steelers would be the designated home team for an international game played in Dublin, where the game will be held at Croke Park. This is the same location where the Steelers took on the Chicago Bears during the preseason in 1997. Pittsburgh now gets the pleasure of hosting the league's first meaningful game in Ireland, where the Steelers have a strong fan base.
It is unclear who the Steelers will be taking on when they travel overseas, but their home opponents have already been revealed for the 2025 season. Pittsburgh is set to play three games at home against the AFC North, and none of those games will be moved as they are within the division. The other games that will be hosted by the Steelers are matchups against the Buffalo Bills, Green Bay Packers, Indianapolis Colts, Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks.
Pittsburgh's opponent will come from that pool of six teams, with one of the top candidates being the Packers, an organization that is one of the other premiere franchises in the league. However, the Packers played an international game in 2024 which likely takes them out of the running. The NFL's Vice President Of Broadcast Planning & Scheduling Mike North recently went on It's Always Gameday In Buffalo where he was asked about Pittsburgh's potential opponent in Dublin.
"I wouldn't take Buffalo-Pittsburgh and Dublin completely off the table just yet." North said.
The Steelers and Buffalo Bills both have extremely passionate fan bases, which means the international game in Dublin would have some strong viewership. Fans in Pittsburgh may not be happy if Buffalo ends up being Pittsburgh's opponent, as the Steelers have not done well when playing the Bills in recent years.
The game would also feature the NFL's reigning MVP in Josh Allen going up against the highest-paid defense in the league. It would be an interesting matchup, and should be one that would help grow the game overseas, which is the entire reasoning behind the increase in international contests over the last several years. North did acknowledge that a game between the Bills and Steelers could be played in a lot of other slots, but it would likely be a standalone game.
"But to your point, there's a lot of other homes for a game like Buffalo-Pittsburgh, especially if Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback." North said. "You could see it Week 1 in a national window, you could see it Week 2 in the first Thursday Amazon game, you could see it on a Sunday night, a Monday night. You could see it on Black Friday, you could see it on Thanksgiving night, you could see it on Christmas. There's so many different ways to deploy that asset. But I wouldn't completely rule out Dublin. Don't be shocked if you see a big game or two as we continue to build interest in not just internationally, but also domestically."
Pittsburgh is still waiting for Aaron Rodgers to sign or make any sort of decision, but he would clearly make a game starring the Steelers more attractive to an international audience. The four-time league MVP is one of the most popular players in league history, and his long and drawn out offseason will have a lot of eyes on him whenever he does decide to take the field.
The Steelers Have Struggled When Playing The Bills
Pittsburgh fans won't be happy if the Steelers do have to host the Bills in Ireland. The Steelers have struggled mightily when taking on Buffalo, with the last time the two met being in the playoffs in 2023. Pittsburgh got embarrassed in that game and struggled to contain Allen, and the organization lost to the Bills the year before by a score of 38 to 3. The Bills have had Pittsburgh's number in recent years, but hopefully that can change if the two end up playing one another in Dublin.
