The NFL waited and waited for somebody interesting to raise their hands to volunteer to be on the HBO documentary series “Hard Knocks”, but all hands remained firmly in place. All hands except that of the Washington Commanders who had their hands high in the air but were ignored like Snape does to Hermione Granger (bravo if you get that reference).

So, the NFL had no choice. Despite all the kicking and screaming the Jets tried, the NFL officially chose the Jets to be the featured team on the docu-series later this summer.

We wrote earlier this summer about how being on Hard Knocks wasn’t a death sentence for a franchise’s season and how the Jets were really the only logical choice to take part in the series this year. Really nothing has changed since then.

The Jets will be in the spotlight this summer and it will come with some added pressure. There is one person who can take that pressure away from the players though: Robert Saleh.

Saleh has made his stance clear on the idea of the Jets being featured on the series back at OTAs. “I know there are several teams that would love for ‘Hard Knocks’ to be in their building. We’re just not one of them,” Saleh said.

Despite not wanting to be on the show, for the sake of the team, Saleh now becomes the most important person in the organization while the cameras are on.

The audience wants to be entertained and HBO wants to entertain them. This is basic Intro to Media 101 stuff. The more entertaining a show is, the more people tune in, the more money the entity makes.

Robert Saleh needs to embrace being the charismatic face of the Jets he is for the cameras, so they focus the show on him as much as possible. HBO is going to find interesting stuff to show the audience, and Saleh needs to make sure he provides it, or the producers will start looking elsewhere.

Think back to 2011 when the Jets were last on Hard Knocks. We tuned in every week, not to see Mark Sanchez or Bart Scott. We tuned in to see Rex Ryan. What was Rex going to say this week? What expletive filled rant were we all going to talk about the next day at the proverbial water cooler?

Rex took the spotlight so his player could focus on the football. How did it work out? The Jets went to the AFC Championship game.

That isn’t to say Saleh needs to copy Rex and start screaming profanities. He just needs to be interesting and entertaining. Speaking personally, I have spoken to Robert Saleh a few times and he absolutely has the ability to hold an audience’s attention.

Being on Hard Knocks is an added distraction for a team, but it is not the doomsday some fans believe it to be. It will be a test for Robert Saleh on how he can manage a group of players with the spotlight on and the stakes high.

Hard Knocks will ultimately put Robert Saleh to the test. He needs to be entertaining enough to keep cameras on him, while delegating responsibilities to his assistant coaches and making sure to keep his own duties up to par. It won’t be easy, but it is the job.

Hopefully for GM Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh, they have the right assistant coaches in place to shoulder some of the burden. New OC Nathaniel Hackett has at least some (albeit bad) experience as a head coach. Together with Aaron Rodgers running the show, the offense shouldn’t be affected too much.

The defense is mostly a veteran unit that knows how good they can be when the play up to standards. Hopefully DC Jeff Ulbrich can keep them in line.

This isn’t a team that will be content with one more win than last year. This is a team that has deep playoff aspirations. Do they have the right captain at the helm in Robert Saleh? Navigating Hard Knocks will go a long way to determining that.

Featured Image via Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK