All eyes will be on the quarterbacks this season in the AFC North, which, truth be told, is no different than any NFL division. But the AFC North will be the only one of them featured on HBO's in-season edition of Hard Knocks.
It will be the first time the Emmy Award-winning series will have chronicled an entire division.
And there should be some drama, given that all four AFC North teams finished with winning records last season. That would be none other than the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers.
And all four have notable QBs, from the Ravens' Lamar Jackson to the Bengals' Joe Burrow to the Browns' Deshaun Watson (again) to the Steelers' Russell Wilson, the newcomer in the group. (Wilson, of course, will have to beat out another newcomer, Justin Fields, first.)
This will be a repeat performance for all AFC North teams but the Steelers.
"The Ravens were the first team featured on the original 'Hard Knocks' in 2001," wrote Tom Withers of the Associated Press. "The Bengals' training camp was featured in 2009 and 2013, and the Browns in 2018."
Added Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk:
"The pivot to involving all four teams from one division apparently flows from the competitive disadvantage that occurs when one team gets the assignment. This approach ignores the fact that, beyond the team that wins the division, the second-place (and maybe third- and fourth-place) teams will be trying to win wild-card berths. The competition for those slots includes other AFC teams that won't be hampered by the Hard Knocks assignment."
