Let the countdown begin!

Although the Steelers offseason began weeks ago, the 2024 NFL season has now officially concluded as of Sunday night with Super Bowl LIX. Unfortunately, this means we now have no meaningful football to look forward to for more than half a year. With various offseason events sprinkled over the next several months, we can officially count down the number of days to key offseason dates.

8 days: Franchise/Transition Tag

Beginning on Tuesday, February 18, 2025, teams are able to designate a player with the franchise or transition tag. Teams have two weeks (until 4 PM on March 4, 2025) until the deadline for designation.

14 days: NFL Scouting Combine

The NFL Scouting Combine will once again be held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis and will be held from February 24 through March 3, 2025.

22 days: Pro Days & Facility Visits Begin

March 4, 2025, is the first time for Pro Days for players eligible for the 2024 NFL draft. Additionally, Each NFL can host up to 30 non-local players to visit their facility through April 16. Teams can perform physical examinations but no on-field workouts are permitted. Teams can also hold video or telephone interviews until April 23.

28 days: Free Agent Negotiation

For the 52 hours leading up to when free agency officially begins, teams may begin negotiating with players and agents for free-agent signings at noon on March 10, 2025.

30 days: Beginning of the 2025 league year (start of Free Agency)

At 4 PM on March 12, 2025, teams may officially sign free-agent players to contracts for the upcoming season. This is also the deadline for teams to exercise options on players, submit restricted free agent and exclusive rights tenders, and for teams to be under the 2025 salary cap. Teams may also trade players once the 4 PM deadline has passed.

67 days: Deadline for RFA’s to sign offer sheets

Any restricted free agent must sign any offer sheet from another team by Friday, April 18, 2025. After this date, RFA’s can only sign with the team which offered them a tender.

70 days: Offseason Workouts

April 21, 2025 is the first day teams with returning head coaches, like the Steelers, can begin their offseason workout program. Teams with new head coaches may begin two weeks earlier.

73 days: NFL Draft

The 2025 NFL draft will be held in Green Bay, Wisconsin, beginning on Thursday, April 24 and continuing through Saturday, April 26. The Steelers are scheduled to have eight picks with one selection in each of the first five rounds and three picks in the seventh round.

At this time, these are the only dates agreed upon for the NFL calendar by the NFL and the NFLPA. If the two sides agree on a schedule similar to past seasons, the estimations will be as follows:

~86 days: NFL Schedule Release

It has now become the standard that the schedule comes out after the NFL Draft. If the release is like the last several years, it will come 13-14 days after the first night of the NFL draft, which would be Wednesday or Thursday, May 7 or 8, 2025.

~88 days: Rookie Minicamp and OTAs

Based on the 2024 offseason schedule, Steelers rookie minicamp began the second Friday of May. If they keep the same schedule, the first day would be Friday, May 9, 2025 and go through Sunday, May 11. If this is the date, OTAs began nine days later on the fourth Tuesday of May, which would put that starting date as Tuesday, May 20, 2025. These exact dates will be announced by the Steelers as early as April.

155 days: Franchise Tag Signing

In past seasons, any player who was designated with a franchise tag must have a signed contract by 4 PM on July 15. After this date, the player can only play under the tag for the season.

162 days: Transition Tag Signing

Any player who is designated with the transition tag must have a signed contract from another club by 4 PM on July 22. After this date, only the team who issued the tag has exclusive negotiating rights.

~163 days: Training Camp

Although the Steelers will not officially announce the start date of training camp until the preseason schedule is set, they generally report the middle of the final week of July. With the Steelers unlikely to play in the Hall of Fame Game, the fist day of training camp will not be earlier than the rest of the NFL and looks to be about July 23, 2025.

171 days: Hall of Fame Game

This date won’t be as significant to the Steelers for 2025 as they are not likely to be scheduled to play in the Hall of Fame Game, which should kick off the weekend on Thursday July 31, 2025. The Hall of Fame activities will be over the course of the weekend from the game Thursday through Sunday with the 2025 enshrinement scheduled for Saturday.

178-182 days: First Week of Preseason Game

If the NFL follows the same format they established since 2021, which have been the years with only three preseason games, they would still be scheduled to play in the first full week of preseason games somewhere between Thursday, August 7 and Monday, August 11, 2025.

192-195 days: Last Preseason Game

If the NFL follows their schedule from the last three seasons, the final preseason games for all teams will be between Thursday, August 21 and Sunday, August 24.

197 days: 53-man Rosters

The last four seasons where the NFL had a 17-game schedule, the final roster cut down date was the Tuesday following the final preseason games. If they stick to the same schedule this year, the date would be Tuesday, August 26, 2025.

206 days: NFL Kickoff Game

Thursday, September 4, 2025 will be the first game of the NFL season if things proceed as normal. Barring a horrendous scheduling conflict much like that in 2013, the game will be played in Philadelphia. Since the Steelers don’t play the Eagles in 2025, they should kick off three or four days later on either Sunday, September 7 or Monday, September 8.

~230 days: Steelers host NFL’s first regular season game in Ireland

The date is rumored to be Sunday, September 28, 2025, but the fact is the Steelers are hosting a game in Dublin at Croke Park. It will be the first NFL regular season game played in Ireland.

363 days: Super Bowl LX

Super Bowl LX is scheduled to be played on February 8, 2026 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California..