By ADAM BITTNER

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)

The Steelers’ 2025 schedule was released Wednesday night. Here’s a look at the highlights and lowlights, and how they might affect the team’s chances of getting back to the Super Bowl.

THE BEST Best are last — Many are comparing the six-week span to end the season — in which the Steelers draw contenders including the Bills, Lions and Ravens twice — to their death march to end 2024 that included losses to the Eagles, Chiefs and Ravens twice, including the playoff loss in January. But if that gauntlet taught us anything, it’s that this team is not ready for prime time as constituted. Another back-loaded schedule gives coach Mike Tomlin a chance to re-tool and figure out how to use his array of new personnel — including Derrick Harmon and Yahya Black along a defensive line that was decimated against good teams late in the season.

Other key differences? The Dolphins and Browns are beatable teams sprinkled among these tough matchups. And there’s no wonky Wednesday Christmas game against Kansas City this time around. This team will generally get normal rest to prepare for these tough matchups. While it’s possible those factors will make no difference in terms of the bottom- line results, the situation seems at least a little bit more conducive to success down the stretch.

They face other teams in transition early — The Steelers will face a team likely to start a new face at QB in three of their first four games. Week 1, they’ll probably see old friend Justin Fields with the Jets. Week 2, they’ll get a taste for how Sam Darnold is settling in with Seattle. And in Week 4, they’ll get a look at J.J. McCarthy with Minnesota after he took functionally an injury redshirt as a rookie in 2024. The fourth opponent — New England in Week 3 — had a widely praised draft that included names like Will Campbell, TreVeyon Henderson, Kyle Williams and Joshua Farmer. Probably best to get all of these games out of the way before these opponents get a chance to figure things out.

Division games are spread more evenly — Last year, the Steelers drew AFC North opponents in six of their last eight regular season games, with the only clear beneficiary being HBO’s “Hard Knocks” producers, who got a lot of late-season content as part of their in-season focus on the four teams. This time around, they’ll see division competition beginning in Week 6 against the Browns. If nothing else, it should help break up some of the monotony that made the late-season collapse that much more maddening for some fans.

THE WORST An early bye — Given the way last season ended, it’s fair for fans to fear a team with a lot of veterans having to play 13 straight weeks just to then reach the playoffs — as the Steelers will have to do following their open date in Week 5. We can put a couple of qualifications on that. First, it’s helpful that they won’t need to play the week after returning from their game in Dublin, Ireland. And there’s another mini-bye two weeks later. They’ll get 10 days off between their Thursday night game in Week 7 and their “Sunday Night Football” appearance against the Packers in Week 8.

Carr/Getty Images/TNS the mound win, striking out five, walking five and give up eight hits.

Leading Kane at the plate were Macy Bell, who went 3-for-4 with a double, triple and five RBIs; Lexi Mulcahy, who went 1-for-4 with an RBI; Sara Ely, who went 1-for-3 and Allenah McGuire, who went 1-for-3.

The win concluded the Lady Wolves’ season with a 5-13 record.