NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Twenty teams are eligible for Hard Knocks, HBO’s preseason, behind-the-scenes series following an NFL team.
The Titans are one of them.
Like most teams on the list, they won't raise their hand and volunteer for cameras to come and poke around behind the scenes at their facility and on their practice fields.
And they are unlikely to be high on the list for the network or the NFL, which seeks storylines. The Titans have one big one in Cam Ward, and compelling fringe guys trying to make the roster emerge everywhere. But Tennessee lacks big names and big personalities that can help drive the show.
But I suspect the team would be more amenable to the idea than it has been in the past, when Jon Robinson and Mike Vrabel would have been miserable with any invasive presence.
Mike Borgonzi was part of the Chiefs when Patrick Mahomes was part of “Quarterback,” a Netflix documentary series that followed him, Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota through the 2022 season. Mahomes wore a microphone for every game of the season and Netflix had special access to the quarterback throughout the season.
In Cincinnati, the Bengals did a five-part series, “From the Jungle: Bengals All-Access,” in 2023, which was Callahan’s last season with the team. Before it began, the franchise sold it as “an all-access look at the Cincinnati Bengals in the locker room, behind the bench, at team practice, and during the offseason. Told through the voices of the players, coaches, and staff, this docu-series will be a raw depiction of the Cincinnati Bengals football season from the NFL Combine through a potential Super Bowl.”
Borgonzi and Callahan were not chief decision-makers on those productions, but they were around teams that let cameras behind the scenes, so a Hard Knocks presence would not present something entirely new to them. If the Titans were selected, the team could certainly use the marketing boost that would come with the show.
One thing that can be a factor when the team is chosen is the site – a large crew would certainly like five weeks plus in Nashville, a popular location.
The Titans will spend time on the road for joint practices ahead of two road preseason games.
But there are other good spots where teams have far better storylines.
Other teams eligible for the training camp edition of Hard Knocks: Arizona, Atlanta, Baltimore, Buffalo, Carolina, Cincinnati, Denver, Green Bay, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Miami, Minnesota. New York Giants, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington
Plenty of those teams have significantly more star-power than Tennessee as well as quarterbacks or quarterback intrigue that would appeal to a national audience and/or coaches who would draw an audience.
The Titans could wind up forced to be part of the late-season edition of Hard Knocks that follows a division stretch run monitoring four teams, though the AFC South does not look very attractive at this point. If the AFC South is chosen for that, the four teams become exempt from training camp Hard Knocks.
The offseason edition of Hard Knocks lasted one year. It made waves in 2024 when the Giants were featured. We watched their free-agent planning with Saquon Barkley provide clips that were replayed quite a bit when they let the running back leave in free agency and end up right where owner John Mara didn’t want him, with the rival Eagles.
