Even more eyes could be on the Chicago Bears team heading into the 2024 NFL season.

According to Pro Football Talk, the Bears were mentioned along with the Denver Broncos and the New Orleans Saints as three teams the NFL could force to host the HBO documentary Hard Knocks during training camp in 2024.

The report also mentioned that two other potential teams, the Arizona Cardinals and the Indianapolis Colts, are exempt from consideration after hosting the in-season version of Hard Knocks. In order to be exempt from being forced to host the show, a team needs to: have a new head coach; make the playoffs in either of the two most recent seasons; or appear on the show in the past ten years.

The Bears will certainly be an interesting team to watch heading into the 2024 NFL season and could very well be the team the league decides to force as the next host of the documentary.

The team will soon be making an important decision at the quarterback position, a decision that has already brought a ton of national attention to Chicago. The Bears are also currently in the hunt for their next offensive coordinator which could bring a lot of curious eyes wanting to see how the team's new offense will look next season.

The Bears are also ripe with star personalities currently on the roster prime for great television ratings including wide receiver DJ Moore, defensive end Montez Sweat, and potentially even cornerback Jaylon Johnson (if he remains in Chicago). 

If selected, the Bears will become the 16th different team to be featured on the HBO documentary. Let's take a look at how previous teams forced to host the show in the last few seasons lived up to the high expectations set during training camp.

How previous teams have fared after being on Hard Knocks

2023: New York Jets (7-10, 3rd in AFC East)
2022: Detroit Lions (9-8, 2nd in NFC North)
2021: Dallas Cowboys (12-5, 1st in NFC East)
2020: Los Angeles Rams & Chargers (Rams: 10-6, Chargers 7-9)
2019: Oakland Raiders (7-9, 3rd in AFC West)
2018: Cleveland Browns (7-8-1, 3rd in AFC North)
2017: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-11, 4th in NFC North)

If the Bears elect to draft a quarterback with the number one overall pick, they will join the 2020 Chargers and 2018 Browns as the most recent teams who featured a rookie quarterback on the show. Neither team won more than 7 games that season.

Of the last eight teams to be featured on "Hard Knocks" only two teams went on to the playoffs that season, the 2021 Dallas Cowboys and the 2020 Los Angeles Rams. Five of the other six ended up finishing third or worst in their division that season.

There's a reason the NFL has seemingly had to force teams to host the documentary over the last few seasons and it's because many believe the constant coverage serves as a disadvantage for a team trying to prepare for the season.

The Jets, for example, expressed a fair amount of frustrations after being forced to host the show prior to the 2023 season. 

"The league wanted to go to the Jets, the Jets didn't want it," ESPN's Adam Schefter said last summer. "That's why they waited until last week because there was no other option and the league said essentially, 'You're doing it.'"

We'll see if the Bears end up being the team the league plans to force into hosting the newest season of the show in 2024 and what kind of reaction the chosen team will have this time around.

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