Ranking the Possible NFL "Hard Knocks" Series Candidates for 2024
It's hard to get all 32 NFL teams to agree to anything, but if you took a poll of the 32 head coaches around the league, my guess is all of them feel the same away about the annual HBO NFL training camp documentary Hard Knocks — they would al... The NFL has rules in place to make a team participate in the annual HBO NFL training camp documentary, "Hard Knocks" series, which has been popular with NFL Films for two decades. If no other teams volunteer, the league can force an NFL team to participate if they fail to meet three criteria: have made the playoffs within the last two seasons, have a first-year head coach, have been subject to scrutiny within the past ten years, and have been the subject of numerous training camps. For 2024, the Chicago Bears, the Denver Broncos, and the New Orleans Saints are considered potential candidates. Here is a power ranking in order.
Published : 4 weeks ago by Sean Pendergast in Sports
It's hard to get all 32 NFL teams to agree to anything, but if you took a poll of the 32 head coaches around the league, my guess is all of them feel the same away about the annual HBO NFL training camp documentary— they would al say "Keep those cameras out of my training camp!"The folks from NFL Films have been documenting training camp for one team every preseason for practically two decades now, and the series is not getting any LESS popular. In fact, they're only adding to thefranchise, what with this being the fourth season where we will get an in-season edition of the award winning show.As for the preseason edition, no team has been selected yet, and I wouldn't expect one to volunteer. As always, the NFL has rules in place to make a team do the show if no other team steps up. The league can force an NFL team to be the subject ofif they don't fulfill the following three criteria:1. Have you made the playoffs within the last two seasons?2. Do you have a first year head coach?3. Have you been the subject ofwithin the last ten years?If the answer is "No" to those three questions, then congrats! You could be doing Hard Knocks! For 2024, that only leaves us three teams — the Chicago Bears, the Denver Broncos, and the New Orleans Saints. So which of those three would make for the best season of Hard Knocks? Here is my power ranking, in ascending order:The Saints would have been a fun team to have on here last season, due solely to Jameis Winston still being on the team. I'm big on Winston and his brand of "did he just say that?" hilarity in a reality television type setting. I really don't need to see five weeks of Derek Carr. I guess the one potentially good thing about the Saints, for Texans fans, is there is like a 50 percent chance they play the Saints in the preseason, so there is that.Now THIS one could be good. Sean Payton is already kind of impatient and truculent with the media, and now he is overseeing a team that is clearly in rebuilding mode, where they are dumping more foundational players than they're keeping — Russell Wilson, Justin Simmons, Jerry Jeudy. Watching Sean Payton suffer is fun, and thus, I am all for the Broncos onThe Bears should be one of the more fascinating training camps to watch. They will be the new home of Caleb Williams, rookie quarterback who is a mortal lock to get selected with the first overall pick in next month's draft. He will replace Justin Fields, who was traded to the Steelers last week. Fields was very popular with his teammates. Williams is supremely talented, but didn't always handle failure well at USC. He also has an inner circle, that includes his dad, that can be a bit much. Give me the Bears, all day.
Topics: Football, NFL