The Pittsburgh Steelers don’t begin competition within the AFC North until after their Week 5 BYE. The first matchup after the BYE will be against the Cleveland Browns, who face a much tougher road early in the season.
Both teams have issues at quarterback, namely that neither team knows who their starting quarterback will be in Week 1, let alone for this first meeting between bitter rivals. Of course, the Steelers may very well know that Aaron Rodgers will be the quarterback, but ink hasn’t touched paper on that situation just yet.
The Pittsburgh Steelers could catch the Cleveland Browns in a mid-season QB crisis in Week 6
As for the Browns, they drafted two quarterbacks late in the draft with big names, Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, to pair with veterans Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco. Cleveland will likely opt for one of its veteran options, if for no other reason than the early schedule for the troubled franchise is quite the gauntlet.
Here’s how Cleveland’s first five weeks look:
- Week 1: vs. Cincinnati Bengals
- Week 2: at Baltimore Ravens
- Week 3: vs. Green Bay Packers
- Week 4: at Detroit Lions
- Week 5: vs. Minnesota Vikings
Cleveland gets started with the three strongest teams from the NFC North and the two strongest teams from the AFC North. Someone should check Cleveland’s pulse, because it’s tough to pick a win for the Browns in any of those five games. But that may give us a hint as to who the Steelers will see at quarterback in their Week 6 matchup.
Steelers' revenge narrative brews as Kenny Pickett could be in the mix to start for Browns in Week 6
If the Browns go with Joe Flacco to start and the team performs, well, as expected, it’s likely we see Kenny Pickett suit up for a revenge game against the team that brought him into the NFL with the 20th overall selection in the 2022 NFL Draft. That narrative would certainly draw viewership and intrigue to an otherwise uninspiring Week 6 contest.
If they go the opposite direction, it’s reasonable to believe that Pickett would keep the job for an extra week to play his former team. Even if the Browns do start as bad as 0-5, a QB swap to one of their rookies against Pittsburgh wouldn’t be at the top of their to-do list. Meanwhile, robbing Pickett of his revenge game opportunity could feasibly end his time in Cleveland - maybe not immediately, but we’ve seen Pickett’s reactions to similar situations in Pittsburgh.
That said, it’s unlikely that the Steelers face Gabriel or Sanders until at least the Week 17 matchup back in Cleveland. By then, assuming all options are healthy, the Browns will likely be taking a shot with Sanders to see if he’s worth investing in for 2026.
The Browns' schedule lightens up between Weeks 7 through 15, though two tough games against the Ravens and 49ers are mixed in, which is when we might begin to see the rookie quarterbacks get their first taste of NFL action.