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Who Will the Steelers Play in Ireland This Fall?
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- Who Will the Steelers Play in Ireland This Fall?
Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland -- Arne Müseler
The Pittsburgh Steelers are expected to host a game in Ireland during the 2025 season , and while the NFL has not officially announced that will take place, they have announced some other international hosts that have narrowed down the Steelers potential opponents for their Dublin game this fall.
The Steelers are expected to be the host team in Ireland, giving up a home game, as they are required to do by NFL rule at least once every eight years. The Steelers have never hosted an international game. They played as the visiting team against the Minnesota Vikings in London in 2013. The new rule requiring teams to host was put into place when the NFL went to a 17-game schedule in 2021.
Team flags are displayed on the field ahead of the NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Minnesota Vikings at Wembley Stadium, London, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Nicky Hayes, NFL UK)
Divisional games have not been part of the international series, as the NFL and teams want to maintain the competitive balance of the home-and-home series, so the Steelers likely won't be playing the Baltimore Ravens , Cincinnati Bengals or Cleveland Browns in Ireland.
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The Steelers other home opponents in the 2025 season will be the Buffalo Bills , Miami Dolphins , Green Bay Packers , Minnesota Vikings, Indianapolis Colts and Seattle Seahawks .
The league also does not make teams play multiple international games in the same season if they don't want to. That has recently removed a couple of other teams from consideration.
The NFL announced on Wednesday that the Colts will be hosting the first-ever NFL regular season game in Berlin, Germany this season. On Friday, it was announced that the Dolphins will be the home team for the first game played in Madrid, Spain.
That leaves the Bills, Packers, Vikings and Seahawks as potential Steelers opponents in Ireland. Both the Packers, who played in Brazil , and the Vikings, who hosted in London, played internationally during the 2024 season.
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So while the league hasn't even officially announced the Steelers as hosts and there are still several months until the full schedule will come out, it seems pretty likely that the Bills and the Seahawks are the strongest contenders to play the Steelers in Ireland.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen throws the ball in a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Jan. 15, 2024. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now
The Steelers and Bills have seen a ton of one another lately. They played regular-season games in four straight seasons from 2019-22, met in the playoffs after the 2023 season, and played preseason games against one another in 2023 and 2024, with Buffalo also coming to Pittsburgh for a joint practice between the teams before the preseason game this past summer. Bills coach Sean McDermott and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin were college teammates at William & Mary.
For an NFC team, the Steelers have also seen the Seahawks a lot lately. They played in Pittsburgh as part of their regular four-year rotation in 2019, then hosted an extra game for the 17th crossover game in 2021, went to Seattle in 2023 and are now crossover opponents again in 2025.
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Teams sometimes don't like to take away a home game against teams that have rarely visited, but neither of those would be the case in these matchups.
The Bills last played internationally as the home team in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2023. The Seahawks were the visitors for a game in Munich, Germany in 2022. Both teams have played overseas twice. The Steelers are one of four teams, along with the Dallas Cowboys , Cleveland Browns and Washington Commanders , to only play overseas in a regular season game once.
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