Steelers To Face Aaron Rodgers At Home In Preseason

The Steelers and the other 31 teams in the NFL announced their preseason schedules on Thursday afternoon.

As previously announced, the Steelers will play five preseason contests instead of the traditional four. Because former RB Jerome Bettis will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer, the Steelers will play in the Hall of Fame Game.

That game takes place on August 9th at Canton at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, named for the Saints owner who has donated millions to the Hall of Fame. The Steelers will face the Minnesota Vikings (7-9 for 2014) – another team who has a Hall of Fame entrant, center Mick Tingelhoff.

The Steelers then travel for a second week to Jacksonville to play the Jaguars (3-13 for 2014).

In Week 2 the Steelers will take on Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers (12-4 for 2014) at Heinz Field…. well… at least a quarter against Aaron Rodgers.

In Week 3, the team travels to Buffalo to take on the Bills (9-7 for 2014) under new head coach ‘Sexy Rexy’ Rex Ryan. Week 4 of the preseason has the Steelers at home closing out with the Carolina Panthers for the 13th consecutive year.

It’s a fairly weak preseason schedule. The Vikings and Jaguars were sub .500 clubs in 2014, and even the Bills struggled for the majority of the season even though they went 9-7.

How much of a test these five teams will be to measure what kind of team the Steelers will be in 2015 is hard to predict. I would imagine that they will have a tough go with Green Bay in the first half when the first and second teams play.

Mike Tomlin’s preseason woes (though he wouldn’t call them that) might continue as Tomlin has gone 1-7 the last two preseasons combined. His previous first six preseasons were a bit better with suffering only one loss each year and a combined record of 19-6.

But, as we know, the preseason isn’t about win/loss. It’s about seeing how players progress over the five week period from whence they came out of training camp.

And, even then, it’s not always a good indicator how the team will enter the first few weeks of the season let alone how the roster will shake out.

The Hall of Fame Game is the only game officially on the books for the date. All other games have yet to be officially scheduled with dates and times, but the order is at least there.

Next: Bell Suspension Doesn't Add Up

More from Still Curtain

Home/Steelers News