The Pittsburgh Steelers have not played an international game since 2013 when they traveled to London to play the Minnesota Vikings. On Monday, it was reported that the Philadelphia Eagles will be playing their Week 1 game of the 2024 season in Brazil, and that the Eagles would be the “home” team. This means the opponent will be picked from from their pool of home opponents for 2024, which happens to include the Steelers.

Steelers Insider Believes The Steelers Will Be Playing In Brazil In 2024

The Eagles are slated to have nine home games in 2024. The Steelers insider for The Athletic, Mark Kaboly, joined 93.7 The Fan on Tuesday to explain why the Steelers are the best option to play the Eagles for the NFL.

“They got nine home games, they play a home game in Brazil. They play three NFC East teams, you have to say that they would not have that in Brazil. Throw those three games out. That leaves six games, two of these teams are already playing overseas. Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars, throw them out, they’re not going to have them go to London and then Brazil. The Cleveland Browns have to be on the road Week 2, the NFL stays away from teams having their home opener Week 3, throw the Browns out.”

Due to what would be scheduling conflicts for the NFL, six games could realistically be eliminated from being moved to opening weekend in Brazil. The NFC East is always a tight division, so the NFL likely doesn’t want to take away any of the teams true home games within the division. The NFL would never make a team travel to a different country twice in one year, although the Jacksonville Jaguars had two games in London in 2023. They stayed overseas for two weeks straight, however.

After Kaboly eliminates those five options, which the NFL would simply never do, four teams are left. Kaboly eliminates the Cleveland Browns as well, since they have a road game Week 2 and explains that the NFL tries to stay away from a team’s home opener being in Week 3. There is no guarantee the NFL will do that for Cleveland though. During the 2023 season alone, both the Green Bay Packers and the Las Vegas Raiders did not have their home openers until the third week of the season. Kaboly continues to explain his thought process on why the Steelers are primed for this game in Brazil.

“That leaves us three teams that could possibly be going to Brazil: The Atlanta Falcons, and who wants to see that, especially when trying to make a splash in Brazil, the Green Bay Packers or the Pittsburgh Steelers. Which I would be led to believe now that the front-runner would either be the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Green Bay Packers.”

The Steelers are certainly in the running to be opening up the 2024 season in Brazil. The Steelers have one of the best fan bases in all of sports, and that extends internationally. They were recently ranked during the 2023 offseason as having the sixth-best international fan base in the entire NFL.

Due to the Steelers’ large fan base, both domestically and internationally, it is no question they would be a good choice to travel to Brazil to take on the Eagles. It’ll likely come down to either the Steelers, Packers, Atlanta Falcons, or the Browns. The Steelers and the Packers are arguably the two most historic franchises in the NFL, and out of those four teams, they certainly have the strongest fan bases. This makes both Pittsburgh and Green Bay the two best options for the NFL.