Fantasy Index

Factoid

NFL Preseason

Do preseason games matter?

Time to fire up the practice games. Preseason means different things to different players and coaches, and winning often isn’t the top priority. The best teams in August in recent years, after all, have been Washington and Detroit, and they haven’t had much success in the real games.

Here are the win-loss totals (for preseason games) for the last five years.

Of the five teams that have won over 60 percent of their preseason games, only one has played in a conference championship game. (At the same time, no team under .500 in the preseason over the last five years has played in a Super Bowl.)

On the chart below, if a team played in a Super Bowl, there’s a black dot.

PRESEASON RECORDS (2011-2015)
FranchiseWLPct
Washington164.800
Detroit155.750
Philadelphia146.700
•• Seattle146.700
Houston137.650
• Baltimore128.600
Chicago128.600
•• Denver128.600
• San Francisco128.600
Minnesota129.571
• NY Giants129.571
• Carolina119.550
Cincinnati119.550
Green Bay119.550
Tennessee119.550
•• New England1010.500
NY Jets1010.500
San Diego1010.500
New Orleans1011.476
Arizona912.429
Miami912.429
Cleveland812.400
Jacksonville812.400
Kansas City812.400
St. Louis812.400
Tampa Bay812.400
Dallas813.381
Pittsburgh813.381
Indianapolis614.300
Buffalo615.286
Atlanta515.250
Oakland515.250

—Ian Allan

Fantasy Index