Bears On Hard Knocks Episode 1: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Analysis: A critique of episode 1 of the HBO series looking behind the scenes at Bears training camp, aired on Aug. 6.

Wide receiver Tyler Scott signs autographs at Bears training camp. / David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

Other than the body of an undrafted Canadian rookie offensive lineman, not much new was revealed by HBO's Hard Knocks in its first episode at Halas Hall.

They stuck to low-hanging fruit throughout the opener of the five-part series that looks behind the scenes at Bears training camp. This included their first look at rookie QB Caleb Williams.

There was one exception to the opening tone of the tell-all series. It showed much more than even rookie lineman Theo Benedet's singing scene.

The obligatory part on safety Jonathan Owens and his gymnastics gold medalist wife  Simone Biles was on the entertaining side, but only a distraction from the real story being told of this team.

The introduction set up the story of a historical franchise trying to do a makeover, but missed the mark for one key reason.

As they move into the second part of the series next week, hopefully more will become clear and revealing.

Here is the good, the bad and the ugly for HBO's Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Chicago Bears.

The Good

One good part was more like "the excellent." It was the visit by Nick Saban to Halas Hall and his talk with his former player.

Never mind that this seemed contrived for the HBO cameras, the visit and not the conversation. Saban just chose now to pop in and see his former player from his days long ago as Toledo coach? He could have come anytime, even the regular season. After all, he's retired. Did HBO have something to do with it?

People are coming in all the time to see someone or something at Halas Hall during the season.

And Saban didn't come to see the place where he could have once coached. After all, the Bears tried very hard in 2004 to bring him there before refusing to cave and eventually hiring Lovie Smith. It worked out for both parties but Saban moreso than Chicago.

This visit really did provide a moment of clarity needed to set up the rest of the series and Bears season. It was Saban's comment about Williams.

"To me, expectations are a killer," Saban said to Eberflus in a one-on-one conversation. "This kid you got, this kid has got so much media, so much hype, so much expectation on doing well, and he has to develop so quickly to meet the expectations that everyone has for him. It's almost impossible."

True enough. This sums up the entire Bears rebuild as they enter this season. The hopes and fears all rest on this quarterback, the second one for Ryan Poles and Eberflus but first one they actually drafted. And there is no way he can live up to the hype.

Eberflus countered with the need for development. Therein lies the rub. The time to develop Williams described by Eberflus is three years. Is there patience for three years of development starting in the third year of a rebuild by a franchise so mired in losing?

It's enormous pressure.

Another interesting aspect of their conversation was Saban talking about coaching QBs.

"I always stood behind the quarterback," Saban said. "I always wanted to hear the version of what was happening."

• The slip 'n slide at practice. Although it was widely shown on social media by the team and retweeted, it was revealing in one way. Williams says in the episode he wasn't a baseball player. His sliding shows it. He's going to need to practice it. Then again, Justin Fields was a baseball player and he didn't do a good job of sliding to avoid contact.

• The Williams scene in the press conference when he summed up his progress to that point was effective. It was already played throughout Chicago on TV, radio and in print, but shown through the HBO cameras and at the angle chosen, it carried much more impact.

The Bad

• Cole Kmet at Wrigley Field throwing out the first pitch. This did nothing to set a tone and seemed like wasted time in the episode. It looked more like an excuse for the HBO video team to go on a junket to Wrigley Field. Bears players go to Wrigley all the time, and even to White Sox games, and throw out so many first pitches that it sometimes seems they should be down in the bullpen. This showed nothing other than Kmet no longer has the control on his fastball that he once had as a young baseball player.

• The Eberflus haircut. Who cares how his wife and family talked him into this hair style and beard? This was beaten to death by local media and Eberflus isn't well known enough nationally for this to depict anything. Emblematic with a makeover, perhaps, but no one in Chicago cares about Eberflus' looks other than his wife and daughters.

• Eberflus' outfit at the party. It wasn't bad simply because it looked like the outfit one of his assistant coaches wore, as his daughter pointed out. He looked like he was getting ready for a cricket match. Shorts would have been sufficient for this summer party where 18 kids were in the pool.

• The scene tying Williams' expectations to Michael Jordan's era. This is a bit like the references to deep dish pizza. Let's get past cliche, please. The Jordan era ended in the 90s and had nothing to do with this football team. There's plenty of pressure on Williams and Eberflus, as the Saban scene already showed. And it comes from a franchise so entrenched in losing.

• How little they looked behind the scenes at the DJ Moore signing when agent Drew Rosenhaus made an appearance. Seeing more of this would have been fun. Also, they called it the biggest Bears contract but Jay Cutler's deal was $16 million more than Moore's. Cutler's, though, was over a longer period of time. That makes him higher paid on an annual basis.

The Ugly

• Biles' French bulldog Rambo, and his diaper.

• The editing of this episode. There is far too much time devoted to what happened in the meaningless extra preseason game that lasted just under three quarters. Other parts they showed required more time and didn't get in because of this emphasis on the preseason game cut short by rain. No one cares about that extra preseason game other than the Austin Reed family maybe, Collin Johnson and Brett Rypien.

• The inability of Hard Knocks to make immediately apparent how much pressure there really is on this organization and the coaching staff because of the team's perpetual mediocrity.  One winning season since 2012, one playoff win since Brian Urlacher and the defense led the team into a Super Bowl in 2006, and that playoff win was over a losing team. The city is so starved for football success that describing only the pressure on Williams through his conversation with Saban is extremely insufficient.

• Benedet's strip-tease version of Lee Greenwood's song "Proud to Be an American" was something anyone could live without.

• The "Speedo' underwear with an eagle on it were a bit much from the Canadian player. The irony of it all is he came away with the only real injury in the game, a bad hamstring pull.

By the way, it's not lost on the media that we only know Benedet had a bad hamstring pull because HBO was allowed to reveal it. The Bears still don't give away information on injuries in preseason unless it's significant.

Why not bring in the trainer to let him give an injury update for media the same way? In days long gone by, media members could get it from the trainer themselves if they wanted.

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