Pittsburgh Steelers training camp preview: Key dates, notable additions, biggest storylines

With NFL training camps kicking off in July, it’s time to get up to speed on all 32 NFL teams. Nick Shook has the lowdown on position battles, key players and notable subplots across the AFC North.

Catch up on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offseason developments and 2024 outlook below.

Training Camp Dates/Information

• Players report: July 24 (rookies and veterans)
• Location: Saint Vincent College | Latrobe, Pennsylvania (fan information)

Notable Roster Changes

Preseason Schedule

• Week 1: vs. Houston Texans | 7 p.m. ET on Friday, Aug. 9
• Week 2: vs. Buffalo Bills | 7 p.m. ET on Saturday, Aug. 17
• Week 3: at Detroit Lions | 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, Aug. 24

2024 Schedule Notes

• The Steelers open the season with back-to-back road games and play three of their four games outside of Pittsburgh.
• Pittsburgh finishes the season with back-to-back home games.
• The Steelers cap the season with four of their final five games against 2023 playoff teams, including tilts against all three of their division rivals.

— NFL Research

What You Need To Know

1) Who will be the new sheriff in town? The Steelers owned spring headlines by remaking their quarterback room with incredible quickness, signing Russell Wilson, dumping Kenny Pickett and acquiring Justin Fields less than 24 hours later. In a flash, Pittsburgh’s situation under center changed drastically, setting up a fascinating 2024 season rife with speculation. Will Wilson keep the job all season? How will the Steelers find a way to evaluate Fields if he doesn’t get significant game reps? The path ahead is loaded with checkpoints where things could shift significantly — or Wilson could compile a wild comeback season and lead the Steelers to the playoffs. Regardless, the Steelers should be more entertaining than they were last season with Pickett, Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph — and especially Matt Canada. Speaking of …

2) After proving to be among the most loyal coaches in the history of professional sports, Mike Tomlin finally pulled the plug on the Matt Canada experience in the middle of the 2023 season, mercifully ending a frustrating era of subpar and unimaginative offense. Arthur Smith is now in charge of the offense, bringing with him a system that extracted seven wins from each of the last three Falcons seasons he spent as Atlanta’s head coach, despite cycling through quarterbacks like a jukebox stocked solely with forgettable B sides. Smith owns a demonstrated history of relying heavily on the run, especially when the passing game is on life support. That could bode well for running back Najee Harris in a contract year, but it’s far from guaranteed Smith will run things in Pittsburgh the same way.

3) General manager Omar Khan crushed the 2024 offseason, drafting starting-quality linemen at center (Zach Frazier) and right tackle (Troy Fautanu), plus a sneaky-good receiver in Roman Wilson, who should fit into the top three nicely, and an uber-athletic linebacker in Payton Wilson with sideline-to-sideline range who can be used as a blitzing missile. Khan spent free agency reinforcing both sides of the ball, picking up a handful of receivers (Scotty Miller, Quez Watkins and Van Jefferson) while trading away Diontae Johnson, then added an experienced corner in Donte Jackson, replacing an aging Patrick Peterson in the process. On paper, the Steelers are markedly better, and if the quarterback revamp works out, Tomlin should have his best roster since the Steelers finished 12-4 in 2020.

4) Mike Tomlin returns with a new deal and his best chance to win since that 2020 campaign. Tomlin ended a trying 2023 campaign with a lopsided playoff loss in Buffalo, and because he was headed into the final year of his existing contract in 2024, he was forced to field questions regarding his job security. Tomlin wisely walked away from such questions without answering, and months later, he signed an extension. Thanks to the job Khan did in the offseason, Tomlin should feel reinvigorated entering 2024 — especially considering the way Khan pivoted the Steelers from betting on a youngster at QB to leaning on a veteran, with a talented option behind him. Anyone who previously called for Tomlin’s job should be rather quiet right now, and if he produces (as he usually does), such criticisms should rightfully fade into the abyss.

5) The winter gauntlet awaits. The schedule-makers did the Steelers zero favors in 2024, putting them in front of a national audience three times in Weeks 5-8, but that’s not the tough part. No, that arrives in Week 11, when the Steelers start a four-game stretch filled exclusively with divisional games, including meetings with Baltimore and Cleveland that bookend a short week. It only gets more difficult from there, as Pittsburgh celebrates Christmas with three lumps of coal: at Baltimore (Week 16), home versus Kansas City four days later (Christmas Day in Week 17) and home versus Cincinnati (Week 18). The Steelers’ season truly doesn’t start until Week 11, and that’s if they’re in solid position when they reach that point. If any coach can prepare his team for such a stretch, it’s Tomlin, but it certainly won’t be easy.