On Monday morning, the NFL Network announced the slate of 22 preseason games they will air during the 2022 preseason. The Pittsburgh Steelers will take part in one of those games, with their August 13 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks airing on NFL Network at 7 p.m EST.
It’s the first of two preseason games the Steelers will have nationally televised, as their August 28 matchup against the Detroit Lions will air on CBS.
It’s not a surprise that Pittsburgh will have two nationally-televised preseason games, as both will likely feature Kenny Pickett, the only rookie quarterback selected in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft. Pickett’s performance in training camp and the preseason will be one of the hottest storylines not only in Pittsburgh, but across the NFL as a whole, as fans and analysts will look to prematurely call him a bust or a future star based off his first moments of NFL action.
The matchup against the Seahawks will be Pittsburgh’s preseason opener. The two teams met in the regular season last year, when the Steelers won in overtime on Sunday Night Football in Week 6 against a banged up Seahawks team missing its starting QB in Russell Wilson and starting RB Chris Carson. Now, Wilson is in Denver, and much like Pittsburgh, Seattle will look to determine who will win their QB competition that will come down to QBs Drew Lock and Geno Smith. Smith started in the regular season contest against Pittsburgh last season.
After the Seattle game, Pittsburgh will play the Jacksonville Jaguars before finishing their preseason slate against the Lions. The Steelers will play just three preseason games this season, their first time doing so since the NFL moved to that format last year.
While Pickett’s performance will likely garner the brunt of the attention, it’ll be interesting to see the performance of Pittsburgh’s new-look offensive line and a few of the other position battles, including Kendrick Green vs. Kevin Dotson at OG.
This could be one of the most interesting preseasons in Steelers history as they figure out who will start at QB in the wake of Ben Roethlisberger’s retirement.
