Steelers Take Mantle as NFL’s Top Preseason Team

With the Las Vegas Raiders losing to the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday, the Pittsburgh Steelers will wrap the 2023 NFL preseason with the longest active preseason winning streak in the league.

FINAL: A big performance from @willgrier_ gives the @dallascowboys the win. #LVvsDAL pic.twitter.com/JfUJSINew7

— NFL (@NFL) August 27, 2023

The Steelers finished the 2023 preseason 3-0 and have won six straight preseason games, dating back to the start of the 2021 season. The Raiders had also won six straight preseason games, going 4-0 in 2022 before starting 2023 2-0, but a 31-16 loss to the Dallas Cowboys put their streak to bed on Saturday night.

The Jacksonville Jaguars and Washington Commanders also finished the preseason 3-0 this year. The New Orleans Saints are 2-0 and will wrap tomorrow night against the Houston Texans. 

The Baltimore Ravens had been the undisputed kinds of the preseason entering the season, and they won their first preseason game of 2023, beating the Philadelphia Eagles to push their preseason winning streak to an NFL-record 24 games. The Ravens lost on a last-minute field goal in Week 2 against the Washington Commanders and also lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Saturday.

The losses by the Ravens and Raiders leave the Steelers standing alone with the best preseason win streak in the country at six games.

The Steelers have long been believers in the value of preseason games, and they were one of the rare clubs to play their starters in all three games this year. That probably went into the team’s 3-0 record.

“You can’t get enough of these opportunities in-stadium,” head coach Mike Tomlin said after the victory in Atlanta on Thursday. “You work your tail off to simulate it in a practice setting, but it is what it is and so, we will come through it like we always do in an effort to get better.”

With just three games per NFL preseason the new normal, it will take the Steelers a long time to catch the Ravens’ record. If they continue to win every preseason game, they would tie the mark in 2029 and break it in 2030.