{"id":250030,"date":"2026-07-23T05:02:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T05:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/250030\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T05:02:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T05:02:39","slug":"one-hidden-benefit-to-pittsburghs-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/250030\/","title":{"rendered":"One Hidden Benefit To Pittsburgh’s Schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent days, NFL players, including Pittsburgh Steelers LB Patrick Queen and DL Cam Heyward, have spoken out about upgrading playing surfaces to grass<\/a>. For the recent FIFA World Cup, grass systems were installed even at stadiums that don\u2019t use natural grass, and it\u2019s something that NFL players want implemented due to the higher chance for injury on turf.<\/p>\n

The matter is important to many around the league, but Queen and Heyward won\u2019t have to worry about playing much on turf this season. The Steelers will play a league-low three games on turf this season, according to a study by The Athletic\u2019s Jacob Robinson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Steelers will play on turf Week 2 at Gillette Stadium, Week 10 at Paycor Stadium and Week 17 at Nissan Stadium. The team\u2019s 14 other games will come on grass.<\/p>\n

No other team will play on turf less than four times.<\/p>\n

One problem for the Steelers, though, is that the grass at their home field, Acrisure Stadium, has been blasted for the quality. The Steelers share the field with Pitt, and that leads to a lot of tread and wear and tear. A particularly sloppy Week 6 game against the Cleveland Browns last season led to a season-ending injury for Steelers special teams ace Miles Killebrew and complaints to the NFLPA.<\/p>\n

The field received an F-minus in the recent NFLPA players survey, though the Steelers did try to improve the surface<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the issues at Acrisure, it is still a benefit for the Steelers to play most of their games on natural grass. It\u2019s preferred by players and it\u2019ll minimize the risk of injuries. The Steelers have been plagued by soft-tissue injuries in recent years, and that was particularly the case at MetLife Stadium in Week 1 last season.<\/p>\n

CB Joey Porter Jr. suffered a hamstring injury while S DeShon Elliott and LB Malik Harrison both suffered knee injuries on the MetLife turf. Avoiding the turf surface as much as possible should help players stay on the field and keep the Steelers just a bit healthier.<\/p>\n

Of course, the field at Acrisure is going to need to be up to par, but assuming the new playing surface holds up better, the Steelers should have a bit of a benefit over the rest of the league in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In recent days, NFL players, including Pittsburgh Steelers LB Patrick Queen and DL Cam Heyward, have spoken out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8206,106929,73,75,74,44716,995],"class_list":["post-250030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-acrisure-stadium","tag-jacob-robinson","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-the-athletic","tag-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}