The NFL off-season is at its slowest time of the year especially with the NBA playoffs recently coming to a close. Although it is the slowest time of the year, there have been many storylines surrounding all teams across the league, especially the Chicago Bears. A lot of those storylines have been surrounding Justin Fields, off-season additions, and the potential move to Arlington Heights. However, one topic of interest that has been discussed a good amount is what team will be on HBO’s Hard Knocks television series that covers one team each season as only a select few can be considered. The 4 teams that are eligible to be on Hard Knocks in 2023 are the Bears, Saints, Commanders, and the Jets. With that being said, here is why the Bears should be on Hard Knocks in 2023:
The Requirements
The main reason that the Bears are able to be in Hard Knocks is because of the basic requirement to be on the show. For those who do not know, Hard Knocks doesn’t choose a random team to be on the tv series. For an NFL team to be on Hard Knocks, their team has to meet the following requirements to be on the tv series: The team has not made it to the playoffs in 2 consecutive seasons, the team has a head coach who is in their second year on the job, and lastly, the team has not been on Hard Knocks in the last 10 years. These requirements have led to the Bears, Saints, Jets, and Commanders to be the 4 eligible teams to be on Hard Knocks in 2023.
Justin Fields
This to me is one of the biggest reasons why the Bears are in the position to be highly considered to be on Hard Knocks besides the Bears meeting the requirements to be in the tv series. When the Bears drafted Justin Fields, it was then realized that the Bears finally drafted a promising young QB that has a lot of star potential. The excitement surrounding Justin Fields is something that no other Bears QB has experienced before which speaks for itself. I always consider the Bears drafting Justin Fields as part of a gift that Ryan Pace left for the organization when he was fired. Justin Fields received a lot of hype last season because of his major improvements as a QB when there were not really any weapons for him to throw to besides Darnell Mooney and the offensive line could not provide the greatest protection for QB1. This led Fields to run for 1,143 yards in the 2022-23 season, which put him in place to almost breaking Lamar Jackson’s record for most rushing yards by a QB in a season at 1,206 yards. Hard Knocks has the opportunity to choose a team with a QB who has so much potential and that will for sure bring in a lot more viewership, and so much more.
The New Management
One of the unique things that Hard Knocks likes to do when covering an NFL team is that they want to showcase the culture of a team. The biggest component to showing the culture of the team is the head coach, and also how the general manager builds the team. When the Bears drafted Justin Fields, it was the start of a new era, but the new era of Bears football officially started when the Mccaskey’s hired Ryan Poles as the general manager which would lead to the hiring of Matt Eberflus as the Bears head coach. When Poles and Eberflus were hired, it was known that a new culture was to be built and Matt Eberflus made sure to emphasize that he is here to build a new culture. Ryan Poles had also made it known in his introductory press conference that he is going to build this team the right way. When the Lions were on Hard Knocks, everyone loved how Dan Campbell built the culture of the Detroit Lions, which led the Lions to receive an immense amount of respect and it is helping the team in building a bright future. Hard Knocks has a golden opportunity in showing the culture that Poles and Eberflus is building.
Will the Bears actually Be on Hard Knocks?
After everything I had just covered, there is all the reason for why the Bears should be on Hard Knocks in 2023. However, there is a difference between why and what will actually happen. I believe that the Bears should be the absolute number 1 option to be on Hard Knocks in 2023, however HBO wants the New York Jets to be on Hard Knocks. The Jets however, do not want to be on Hard Knocks, which is why I think the Bears still have a very good chance at being in Hard Knocks. While this puts the Bears in a great position to be on Hard Knocks, HBO has the power to force an NFL team to be on Hard Knocks whether they like it or not. This is why I believe that it is a 50-50 chance for the Bears being on Hard Knocks. It is now a waiting game to see which NFL team will be on Hard Knocks in 2023.
