Steelers’ Nation is everywhere, so if you’re outside of the local Pittsburgh market, it can be hard to watch preseason action (in addition to preseason action being hard to watch in general). But fans all over the country will be able to watch at least one exhibition contest this August. According to this tweet from ESPN’s Field Yates, the Steelers/Lions preseason game will be nationally televised on CBS. That game will take place Sunday, August 28th at 4:30 PM/EST.
It’s one of six nationally televised preseason games this year.
The Pittsburgh/Detroit game will be the final nationally televised preseason game and the final preseason game of the year for both teams. Pittsburgh plays two of their three preseason games at home, including this one against the Lions. They’ll kick things off by hosting Seattle on August 13th before their lone road game when they travel to Jacksonville on the 20th. Detroit comes to town to wrap the summer slate of games up.
Games against Detroit might be an annual thing with the two teams meeting last year too, in addition to playing to a tie during the 2021 regular season. Pittsburgh’s longstanding tradition of playing preseason games against Carolina has seemingly ended.
This will be the first year the Steelers have played only three preseason games. While the NFL moved to a three-game schedule last year, Pittsburgh still played four because they participated in the Hall of Fame Game against Dallas, giving each team a total of four exhibition games in 2021. As Yates’ tweet notes, Jacksonville and Las Vegas will play in this year’s Hall of Fame Game.
The Lions game will be the team’s final chance to evaluate their roster, including the quarterback position, before traveling to Cincinnati for a Week 1 AFC North matchup. Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett, and Mason Rudolph are all vying for the starting spot. Currently, Trubisky is the slight favorite, but much can and will change over the next three months.
