Cleveland Browns (1-4) @ Pittsburgh Steelers (3-1)
Sunday, October 12, 1:00 PM ET
Just over a month into the 2025 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers find themselves comfortably in the driver’s seat of the AFC North.
Who could have predicted that?
The Browns have the same record as the Ravens at 1-4, and the Bengals are reeling after Joe Burrow’s latest season-ending injury. As far as a swan song for Aaron Rodgers is concerned, you couldn’t have asked for a clearer path at this point in the season.
Coming off of a bye week, the Steelers are set to host the jet-lagged Cleveland Browns, whose young core of offensive players have actually shown quite nicely despite the team’s overall lack of success. Dillon Gabriel got his first chance to start this past weekend, and did a better job than many expected him to do against the tough Minnesota Vikings defense.
Now, Gabriel is going to get his first taste of what it’s like to play in hostile territory inside the division, and it’s probably for the best that this isn’t his first NFL start.
The Steelers are a veteran-laden roster with a great head coach. Mike Tomlin is going to have his guys ready to beat up on a young quarterback. The Steelers are 5.5-point favorites coming back from the bye and I like their chances of keeping things rolling. The Steelers get to 4-1 this week and the Browns continue to get valuable evaluation on their young offensive weapons.
Prediction: Steelers win 23-19