NFL Does The Steelers No Favors With 2021 Schedule

PITTSBURGH, PA — Facing what on paper is the NFL's most difficult schedule in 2021, several football writers expect the Steelers to miss the playoffs in 2021.

The Steelers will play five times in prime-time. At home, the team will host the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday Night Football and the Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns on Monday Night Football. On the road, the team will play the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football in SoFi

Stadium for the first time and the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday Night Football.

Here's what several writers had to say about the scheduling:

• Brooke Pryor, ESPN: "The Steelers have the league’s toughest strength of schedule based on opponents’ win-loss records in 2020. Ben Roethlisberger and his surgically-repaired elbow want at least one more shot at a Lombardi Trophy, but to do that, the Steelers will have to end with afour-game gauntlet of Tennessee, Kansas City, Cleveland and Baltimore -- all teams that made the playoffs in 2020."

• John Luciew, PennLive: "The Steelers now know the roadmap for reaching what once was a Pittsburgh birthright but lately has become an elusive promised land. I’m talking about the playoffs. To arrive there, the Steelers and their aging quarterback, Big Ben Roethlisberger, must navigate a gauntlet of NFL games that ranks as the NFL’s most difficult. A story book ending for Big Ben and the Steelers seems more remote than ever now that the NFL schedule it out. In fact, it’s looking like a brutal swan song for Big Ben."

Here is the full schedule: