It's always one of the most anticipated events of any offseason – the announcement of the upcoming year's schedule – and the NFL is expected to reveal the 2011 version sometime in late April.
With the NFL's scheduling formula, a team's 16 opponents for the upcoming season were determined by the 2010 final standings, and the Steelers will host New England, Tennessee, St. Louis, Seattle and Jacksonville, along with their three AFC North Division rivals, at Heinz Field.
Officially, the 2011 home schedule contains three games against division opponents, but it also will bring back two teams that had been annual visitors to Pittsburgh, in the form of ex-AFC Central Division members Jacksonville and Tennessee.
The Houston Oilers were charter members of the AFC Central Division, which was formed in 1970 after the NFL-AFL merger and also included Cincinnati, Cleveland and the Steelers. The Oilers then moved to Tennessee and became the Titans, but they remained a part of the AFC Central Division until the league's most recent realignment, in 2002.
The Jaguars entered the NFL for the 1995 season along with the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers were assigned to the NFC West, and the Jaguars became members of the AFC Central, where they played a home-and-home series vs. the Steelers until realignment moved them to the newly-created AFC South where they joined the Titans, Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans.
Also coming to Heinz Field are two teams that don't make very many trips to Pittsburgh. The Rams have played only six times here in the past 40 years, and the Seahawks have played eight times in Pittsburgh since joining the NFL for the 1977 season.
The Steelers 2011 road schedule includes trips to San Francisco, Arizona, Indianapolis, Houston and Kansas City, in addition to the three games against teams in the AFC North.
