HBO's may have acted hastily featuring the Ravens and AFC North last season

USA Today

5 days ago

HBO's may have acted hastily featuring the Ravens and AFC North last season The Ravens and the AFC North could have made for better TV If chosen by HBO this season.
Never before had we seen Hard Knocks provide an inside look behind the scenes of an entire division and do so during the NFL campaign. In Season with the AFC North was certainly worth a watch each week. We saw the Baltimore Ravens and their bitter rivals navigate the home stretch of the most recent NFL regular season. Nothing similar had been seen on primetime television before. If only the decision had been made to wait a year.
The Ravens and HBO's inside look at the NFL date back to the brand's first season in 2001. The defending champions allowed the cameras unprecedented access to Baltimore's first training camp after raising the Vince Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl 35.
Twenty-three years separated one Ravens Hard Knocks appearance from another. Is it crazy to state that, maybe Home Box Office should have waited one more calendar year?
The Ravens and the AFC North may have made for even better television for Hard Knocks cameras in 2025.
Much has changed in one of football's most competitive divisions since we watched the final episode of In Season with the AFC North last January. The Cincinnati Bengals haven't signed their best player to a contract extension and have managed to tick him off in the process.
Issues with the organization don't stop there. They also haven't signed their first-round draft choice, Shemar Stewart, and Ravens star Marlon Humphrey had no problems with giving them a hard time about it on social media.
No one knows what's going on with Aaron Rodgers and his perceived interest in joining Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Black and Gold doesn't have a starting quarterback. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Browns have too many. The Deshaun Watson era appears to be over, and despite adding two signal-callers in the most recent NFL Draft, one being Shedeur Sanders, the Brownies seemingly have a lot of bodies but no real answers at football's most important position.
And, how could we ever forget about the coaches? John Harbaugh has aged gracefully. He enters his 18th season as Ravens head coach, and even though he turns 63 years old in September, he looks like he's still in his thirties. He's seemingly the only head coach in the division who isn't coming under fire.
Mike Tomlin, Zac Taylor, and Kevin Stefanski were all recently placed on the hot seat by Bradley Locker at Pro Football Focus. The Steelers never fire coaches. Tomlin has never had a losing season at the Steelers' helm, so his inclusion might draw a few questions.
But, regardless of where you stand on that, everything previously stated was mentioned to state the following. Here's a theory we can all agree on. Maybe HBO should have featured the Ravens and their rivals on Hard Knocks this season.
No disrespect is intended to the NFC East, this coming regular season's subject. Still, with all of the storylines being birthed in the American Football Conference's northern division, it's easy to make the argument that HBO followed the Ravens and company a year too early.