Seahawks will appeal to Hard Knocks

Why 2025 is the year that the NFL could actually put the Seahawks on Hard Knocks, whether fans hate it or just really dislike it

The Seattle Seahawks have made themselves very interesting. Oops.

The NFL has changed its rules for which teams will be eligible for Hard Knocks, HBO’s training camp reality series, but with or without new criteria, the Seahawks would have been eligible. And for the first time in a long time, Seattle is eligible at a time when they might also be more appealing as a subject than any of the other eligible teams.

The Seahawks have never been on Hard Knocks. They declined an invite in 2013…AND THEN THEY WON THE SUPER BOWL THAT YEAR.

The impact of HBO’s cameras could be slightly overblown — The Cowboys went 12-5 in 2021 and the Lions started their turnaround with a 9-8 record in 2022, both teams coming off of much worse previous seasons — but there’s no obvious benefit to the team for being featured on the show.

The fans, on the other hand, probably do benefit. At least a little bit.

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Why fans benefit

It’s just more content about our favorite thing, right? I have only watched the show sporadically over the years, usually tuning out before the season finale in recent seasons (since they’ve essentially cut “the cuts” from the show, which had previously been the most enthralling part of the season), but a show about THE SEAHAWKS would be super appealing.

Even if the show is in some way bad for the team, it’s completely out of our hands if the NFL selects Seattle for Hard Knocks anyway. If that’s what they do, I’m going to be extremely excited to watch it and find out how people like Mike Macdonald, John Schneider, and Sam Darnold come off on camera.

And everyone reveals more of themselves when they’re on TV. You might finish the season feeling either deeply more connected to or significantly less beholden to any of the people responsible for the success of your favorite team.

As fans, we might object to coverage in unison. But if it happens, which is entirely out of our control, we’re also going to all watch and discuss it week after week and then come to have different opinions about these people on the Seahawks based on what we see.

Why the Seahawks are suddenly very appealing

Mike Macdonald’s second year

First-year head coaches are still ineligible, as they have always been. But second-year head coaches might be a little more interesting than veterans who have personalities that are strongly set in stone and less surprising, such as Mike Tomlin, John Harbaugh, Sean McDermott, and Andy Reid.

Yes, the Chiefs and Eagles are both now eligible to be featured on Hard Knocks despite those teams reaching the Super Bowl. Does it sound that interesting to watch Reid and Patrick Mahomes for five more weeks though? I have TV commericals for that.

The second-year head coaches who are eligible include:

• Macdonald, Seahawks

• Raheem Morris, Falcons

• Dave Canales, Panthers

• Sean Payton, Broncos

• Brian Callahan, Titans

• Dan Quinn, Moons

Payton and Quinn could appeal to Hard Knocks for various reasons, certainly Washington would rank ahead of Denver because of Jayden Daniels, but for me I would totally write off Morris, Canales, and Callahan. And Payton. (edit: I just realized this is actually Payton’s third year)

Mike Macdonald is still the trendiest coach in the NFL on this side of Ben Johnson. “How does he actually lead a team?” might be of great interest to the people who choose the Hard Knocks subject.

Sam Darnold’s second third fourth fifth chance

If Geno Smith was still the quarterback of the Seahawks, I would say that their chances of being on Hard Knocks are zero percent. A fourth season of Geno is simply not on par with a first season of Darnold, the highest paid free agent quarterback of 2025.

Though there are a lot of eligible QBs with a successful track record (Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Aaron Rodgers if he signs with Pittsburgh), is that really the point of the show? Usually not. The point of Hard Knocks is, “How do these players grow and reveal their true character in training camp?”

The show featured the Jets with Rodgers in 2023 and … who cares? Now he’s on TV as a character more often than he is as a football player.

Darnold presents one of, if not the most compelling case of all the eligible quarterbacks because unlike 2024, he’s been handed the keys to a franchise. He’s not just holding the seat warm for J.J. McCarthy. Darnold is the highest-paid employee of the Seahawks and how he manages the pressure to be the most important person in the room for the first time since his rookie year in New York is a compelling storyline.

Other eligible QBs who might have similarly interesting stories:

• Michael Penix, Falcons

• C.J. Stroud, Texans

• The competition between Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones, Colts

• McCarthy (vs. Someone?), Vikings

• Russell Wilson, Giants

• Cam Ward, Titans (we assume)

• Daniels, Moons

I would say no thanks to Kyler Murray, Bryce Young, Bo Nix, Jordan Love, Tua Tagovailoa, and Brock Purdy, in addition to the vets I already mentioned. If we’re solely focused on the best story of a QB in 2025 FOR TELEVISION, it’s gotta be:

Darnold, Wilson, Penix/Cousins, Ward, and the competition in Indianapolis:

• The Titans deserve some version of a “pass” given how terrible they were last season. It just seems unfair to also lump the TV show onto their plates.

• AR-15 vs Danny Dimes could flame out after a couple of episodes or go down to the wire. It’s a high-risk, high-reward call.

• The Falcons might only be interesting if they keep Cousins and Raheem Morris has almost no appeal as a character just because he’s very safe.

• The Giants might have the best argument here — head coach/GM on the hot seat, Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston in the Big Apple (plus Shedeur Sanders maybe?) — they were also the subject of ridicule during the NFL’s one and only season of offseason Hard Knocks. Do they also get a pass?

There’s the chance that Washington, Houston, and Minnesota appeal because they’re all perceived to be on the upswing with young quarterbacks, but just because the NFL made reigning playoff teams eligible for the first time it doesn’t mean that the league won’t still prefer franchises that need to take that next step.

Think of it like “The Major League Rule”:

The movie Major League is not about a baseball team that wins every year and keeps winning and “will they win the next one too?” Movies are never about a successful team that keeps being successful. Major League is about a crappy team that is still crappy but then something changes and now will this change make them good?

That’s the story that audiences want to follow. The Seahawks were OKAY-NOT-GREAT last season and they made a huge change at quarterback. Will that change make them better? That’s probably a better story than “This is year two of Quinn-Daniels, will they still be good?”

I predict that the NFL won’t find that storyline to be as compelling as a bad team or an okay team that made a huge change in the offseason.

Cooper Kupp’s homecoming

Finally, and probably the tiebreaking reason that Seattle would be selected for Hard Knocks in 2025, is a 2021 Offensive Player of the Year and Super Bowl MVP who gets cut by the only NFL team he’s ever known and then signing with their division rivals and oh by the way he’s from here.

As a bonus, Kupp has Hard Knocks experience as the Rams were featured in 2020. The next year, the show featured the Cowboys, so DeMarcus Lawrence gives the Seahawks two players who are not just intriguing free agent additions, but the league could argue that they would be able to impart their wisdom on others as far as what to expect.

This is not me telling you why I think the Seahawks should be on Hard Knocks. This is my reasoning for why I think the NFL thinks the Seahawks should be on Hard Knocks.

And I do predict that when the league cuts its list of 20 eligible teams down to 3, the Seattle Seahawks will still be on it:

Summarization of why I believe that:

• Mike Macdonald is one of the most intriguing yet enigmatic head coaches

• Sam Darnold is a former high draft pick QB who just got $100 million for the first time in his career

• Cooper Kupp returns home and also has a bone to pick with a division rival

• DeMarcus Lawrence just made the news for his beef with Micah Parsons

• The Seahawks have never been featured before

• They weren’t so terrible as to think they’re terrible, yet not so great as to think they don’t have a lot of room for improvement

• New offensive coaching staff, starting with Klint Kubiak

• What’s the fallout of trading DK Metcalf?

• John Schneider’s 16th year as a GM and second without Pete Carroll

• Macdonald wants to hold two joint practices this year, a change for the Seahawks from Pete’s era and better TV than not holding a joint practice

• Could the NFL put the Raiders on Seattle’s preseason schedule in an attempt to juice the TV show if they pick the Seahawks?

• (Yes, they could)

• (The Raiders are not eligible for Hard Knocks, but this way they could be snuck onto the show)

• The best-looking training facility in the NFL—how has this never been on Hard Knocks before? (Usually Seattle wasn’t eligible)

Most Seahawks fans do not want to see the Seahawks on Hard Knocks, but that decision is entirely out of our hands. It’s entirely out of Jody Allen and John Schneider’s hands too. If Roger Goodell wants to see the Seahawks on Hard Knocks, that’s who they’re going to pick and unless there’s some unwritten agreement that I don’t know about, I don’t know how Seattle isn’t chosen this year, or at least in the final three.

If it were the “pick the best team sweepstakes” then yeah, it would be the Eagles or the Chiefs. If it were the “pick an MVP game”, then the Ravens or the Bengals or the Bills could make sense. If it were a show about historic legacies, then the 49ers, Packers, and Steelers would make sense. And if it were following the worst franchises, well, take your pick.

It’s not that. It’s television. Err…it’s HBO.

The Seahawks are an “OKAY” team that made a lot of changes and nobody knows if they are going to be really really good…or really really bad. This may be “hard” to hear, but that sounds like Hard Knocks to me.

Seaside Joe 2222