It wouldn’t be August without a new season of Hard Knocks. HBO/Max’s long-running behind-the-scenes NFL docuseries returns for yet another edition, this time heading inside 2024 training camp with the Chicago Bears. The Bears haven’t had a winning season in six years, but there’s optimism on the shores of Lake Michigan, with the addition of #1 overall pick Caleb Williams.
Opening Shot: A cold open, with text indicating it’s April 25, 2024. Bears head coach Matt Eberflus makes a call to Caleb Williams informing him–to no one’s surprise–that the USC quarterback will be taken first in the NFL Draft by the Bears, who intend to make him the new face of their franchise.
The Gist: Hard Knocks is a familiar formula by now, and a winning one. Nearly-as-it-happens footage–sometimes only a day or two old–is provided from inside the training facilities of an NFL team on a week-by-week basis. This footage is mixed with casual interviews and explanatory voice-overs by Liev Schrieber, and it’s at once very polished and feels terribly relaxed considering the pressure of an NFL season.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? At this point, Hard Knocks shouldn’t remind you of anything but Hard Knocks; it’s the biggest fish in its genre of show, and has been for a while.
Our Take: There have been seasons where Hard Knocks has come in without an obvious narrative–seasons where the central story of a team’s season isn’t yet clear. Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Chicago Bears suffers from no such ambiguity.
There’s no bigger factor in an NFL’s team’s success than their starting quarterback. It’s not just that seasons can rise and fall on quarterback play (ask the New York Jets how quickly their expectations reset in 2023 after the season-ending injury to newly-signed Aaron Rodgers) – coaching tenures, decades can hinge on whether or not you’ve got The Guy under center.
For the Bears, this has been an issue for a long time. Sure, they made a Super Bowl in 2007, but no one was mistaking Rex Grossman for Tom Brady. (Also, that was seventeen years ago.) As one commentator notes in a montage of quotes, the Bears are the only team in the NFL to have never had a quarterback throw for 4,000 yards in a season.
They’ve gone all in on changing that season, and it represents a big gamble. Just three years out from spending a high first-round pick on Justin Fields, the Bears decided to hit the reset button, selecting Caleb Williams first overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, despite hefty offers on the table if they’d been willing to trade the pick away. Williams comes in with some of the highest expectations for a quarterback in years. Will he be the next Patrick Mahomes, and raise the Bears to perennial contention? Or will he be another in the long line of highly-touted, highly-drafted passers to fail to meet expectations?
That’ll take a little while to be sorted out. In the meantime, there’s bigger things to be won. Just ask safety Jonathan Owens, who’s packing for a trip to Paris to watch his wife–American gymnastics superstar Simone Biles–compete in the Olympics.
“That’s going to the Super Bowl!”, fellow safety Adrian Colbert marvels as Owens discusses his travel plans. “Man, that’s going to be a beautiful experience.”
After spending two weeks mainlining Olympics content, it’s fun to see Biles in an unguarded, low-pressure conversation, reminding Owens about the differences in fluid restrictions between American TSA and European airport security. Owens, for his part, exudes enthusiasm as he talks about watching Biles compete as he drives to the airport.
“I’m just sitting there watching, like, oh my god. Beam trips me out. There’s no way y’all are doing like, flips, blind landings, all of that… I just really love to support her at the Olympics, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Some of the biggest dramas in a season of Hard Knocks often aren’t at the level of gold medals or first-overall picks, but rather the guys clinging to the margins, and this season dedicates some time to the three quarterbacks competing to be Williams’ backup: Austin Reed, Tyson Bagent and Brett Rypien. They’re not getting big reps, and they’ve got to make the most of the ones they have, including in the preseason-opening Hall of Fame Game.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: The Bears face off with the Houston Texans in the preseason-opening Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio. Both Williams and the Texans’ young star quarterback CJ Stroud stay on the sidelines for this first game, and backup Brett Rypien throws three touchdowns before giving the ball to rookie Austin Reed, who performs well in front of his visiting family before severe weather ends the game early. Meanwhile, tackle Theo Benedet has suffered an injury that promises to keep him out for 4-5 weeks. These frustrations don’t mask the enthusiasm evident for the team’s season, though.
As Owens–back at home–watches Biles struggle in her balance-beam final, Schrieber notes the applicability of the Olympics’ motto to the Bears’ hopes: Faster. Higher. Stronger.
Sleeper Star: Maybe not a sleeper star, when you’re talking about the greatest college football coach of all time, but it’s a pleasant surprise to see Nick Saban show up in the first episode. The coaching legend, fresh off his retirement from a record-setting stint with the Alabama Crimson Tide, visits with Bears head coach Matt Eberflus, who played linebacker for Saban in his first head-coaching gig at the University of Toledo. He offers Eberflus sobering advice about the expectations that Williams is going to be facing. “The expectations are a killer, and development is the key for him. Peyton Manning threw 28 interceptions as a rookie. But it didn’t affect him. The scoreboard doesn’t mean anything until the game’s over.”
Most Pilot-y Line: “Caleb Williams has the opportunity to be the biggest thing in Chicago since Michael Jordan,” an unseen commentator intones, the anchor leg of a string of gushing reviews about the rookie quarterback’s potential impact on a franchise that’s suffered mediocre-to-bad quarterback play for decades. As soon as the line ends, The Alan Parsons Project’s “Sirius” – made famous by the Jordan-era Chicago Bulls’ pre-game intros–fades in to emphasize the point. But hey, no pressure, kid.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Even if you’re not a fan of the Chicago Bears, there’s no better way to gear up for the NFL season ahead than with Hard Knocks.
Scott Hines, publisher of the widely-beloved Action Cookbook Newsletter, is an architect, blogger and proficient internet user based in Louisville, Kentucky.