While the NFL postseason is still rolling along, that hasn’t stopped some from already thinking about who will be the next team to appear on HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks.’
Per Pro Football Talk, the NFL has rules in place for what teams can and cannot be on the show. Any team with a first-year head coach, a playoff appearance in the past two seasons, or an appearance on ‘Hard Knocks’ in the past ten years cannot be forced to partake in the show. Those teams could volunteer, but most organizations find the constant coverage and camera crews to be a distraction, so a team will rarely volunteer.
That leaves the NFL with three teams who can be forced into appearing on the upcoming season of the show: the Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, and New Orleans Saints.
The three options are each intriguing, but it seems very likely that the Bears would be the frontrunners. They currently hold the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and it’s possible they would select USC Trojans quarterback and 2022 Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams to replace Justin Fields. Even if the Bears were to trade the pick, they would still almost certainly have a pair of top 10 draft picks coming in, not to mention being one of the NFL’s most historically significant franchises.
The Broncos have the Russell Wilson drama continuing to unfold, although it seems like Wilson will be cut this offseason, so they too may have a rookie quarterback coming in, in addition to the polarizing personality of head coach Sean Payton.
The Saints feel like the least intriguing option as they’ve committed to keeping head coach Dennis Allen and quarterback Derek Carr, but perhaps the storyline of both men presumably fighting to keep their roles heading into the 2024 season would be worth following over the summer.
