When the Pittsburgh Steelers' 2025 schedule was first revealed back in May, I wrote about why getting a brutally early Week 5 bye was so damaging. Having the league's earliest bye week means that Mike Tomlin's team will be required to play 13 straight games without a break to close out the season—and that doesn't even include playoffs.
By the time this team reaches January, they will be exhausted. Assuming the Steelers don't earn the lone first-round bye in the playoffs, they would need to play 16 consecutive games without a week off to give themselves a shot at going to the Super Bowl (wishful thinking, I know, but still).
However, the Week 5 bye that once looked like a curse suddenly feels like a blessing. Now it looks like it couldn't come at a better time.
At 3-1, the Pittsburgh Steelers' record is a bit misleading. In Weeks 2 and 3, they were grossly outpaced by their opponents in terms of yardage and play-by-play efficiency. Thankfully, they were trending in the right direction before the bye with a 24-21 win over the Minnesota Vikings that didn't feel as close as the score suggested.
There's room to go back to the drawing board and figure out what's not working. The offensive line still struggles to pass protect for more than a few seconds—which has led to an incredibly quick time to throw for quarterback Aaron Rodgers—and they need to address the communication errors at the linebacker position and in the secondary.
But the reason they need this bye week most is simply to recover from a plethora of lingering injuries.
The Pittsburgh Steelers need the bye week to recoup from nagging injuries
Prior to the Week 5 bye, the Steelers were already without cornerbacks Joey Porter Jr. and Cory Trice, running back Jaylen Warren, and edge rusher Alex Highsmith. Meanwhile, players like Derrick Harmon and DeShon Elliott both missed time early in the season with MCL sprains.
Unfortunately, Pittsburgh suffered additional injury setbacks in the Week 4 win. Cornerback Jalen Ramsey, who faked a hamstring injury as part of a touchdown celebration (which was quickly called back), ended up sustaining a real hamstring injury late in the game and could miss time even after the bye. Likewise, wide receiver Calvin Austin III exited the game against Minnesota and is expected to miss several weeks with a shoulder injury.
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Thankfully, the bye week is here to offer added rest for injured players at just the right time.
The additional week off gives players like Porter, Trice, and rookie cornerback Donte Kent added time to return to the field and get back up to speed in practice. Having an early Week 5 bye also means that players like Ramsey, Highsmith, and Austin could ultimately miss one fewer game than they otherwise would have if the bye were later in the season.
We could be looking at the Pittsburgh Steelers down the stretch with a different attitude—especially if they get into a slump in the second half of the season. But for now, this once-brutal early-season bye is starting to look like a blessing for Mike Tomlin's banged-up team.