The fifth and final episode of “Hard Knocks” featured Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles and coach Matt Eberflus navigating final cuts.
It’s how the series usually ends each season. We know who got cut, who made it and who’s on the practice squad, but “Hard Knocks” takes us inside some of those conversations.
Don’t worry — there were still some cool Caleb Williams throws and enough highlights and narration to get Bears fans even more excited (if that’s possible) for Sunday’s season opener.
Overall takeaways
Greenberg: The real “Hard Knocks” were the friends we made along the way. And also, the tears that we shed. Last week, people cried with Ian Wheeler and his mom after his ACL injury. This week, Poles was cutting onions when he had to cut defensive back Adrian Colbert, who again seems like the chillest dude in the world. I think Colbert is going to play his listening bowls and be all right. But Poles’ humanity was on display in this episode as he delivered the cuts. I wasn’t sure we’d see guys getting cut at all based on chairman George McCaskey’s recent interview with the Sun-Times, but the “George Edit” mostly focused on the guys who stuck around on the practice squad. This episode was fine. The season was fine. And now we can move on.
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Fishbain: Eberflus’ message from the spring was the Bears were proud of how they operate and they are comfortable letting the league see it. That might’ve been a positive spin for a coach who — like anyone — probably had no interest in being featured, but you did see that in those scenes with the cuts. You got to see offensive lineman Jake Curhan say it was a “real crowded” offensive line room that pushed him to get better. You saw Brett Rypien say he appreciated Poles and Eberflus being “up front,” and then as he’s on his way to Minnesota, he said, “This team is gonna do special things this year.” It turned out to be a nice advertisement for the 2024 Bears, with a few fun quick scenes mixed in, like Montez Sweat talking pass-rush moves with Austin Booker and a tour of DJ Moore’s new house.
Favorite scene
Greenberg: I really liked the ending scene with Williams. The music stopped and it was just him. He yelled, “Here we go!” and then he got quiet. “There we go, there we go,” he said, seemingly to himself. “Let’s focus. Let’s get after it.” And then he took a deep breath. It was cinematic, and a nice segue into the season.
Fishbain: The montage of Williams throwing pass after pass in practice, with comments from coaches and players interspersed throughout, was “Hard Knocks” at its best from a cinematic perspective. The editing, the angles, the smash cuts to mini soundbites before going right back to another Williams throw was very cool.
Repetition breeds success 🔁#HardKnocks pic.twitter.com/pFru8LMgyg
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) September 4, 2024
Similarly, bookending the series with “End of Beginning” and the close-up of Williams had to get Bears fans dreaming of playoff games and Super Bowl parades.
Because we like to rely on this show to give us off-the-cuff conversations that we don’t get at the lectern in the media room, I did appreciate Poles’ dialogue about receiving a trade inquiry about Velus Jones Jr. as well as the coaches who discussed Jones’ value to the team.
Funniest moment
Greenberg: Either when DJ Moore’s daughter did her “Cribs” tour followed by announcing that her mom was pregnant or when Yalie Kiran Amegadjie and Canadian Theo Benedet were arguing over which college created modern football: Yale or McGill University in Canada. Not a lot of Yale vs. McGill arguments at most Bears camps. I also enjoyed when Tyson Bagent and Austin Reed were joking about their potential post-NFL lives.
Fishbain: It’s nice that the Bears were able to keep Reed. Maybe he’ll do some comedy routines for us in the locker room during the season. I liked his, “I’ll move to Jacksonville and work at a Chili’s” plan for if he got cut.
Unintended humor: Seeing the interaction between Poles and Giants GM Joe Schoen at the Clemson-Georgia game. The vibes between the two “Hard Knocks” teams couldn’t be more different right now, and I wonder what Schoen has thought about seeing the Bears’ version.
Greenberg: How about Flus having his own beekeeper? Did John Fox have a beekeeper? I bet he did. As always, I love Kevin Warren’s awkward insertion into the episode. Wow, you think George Halas is important? No one ever talks about him.
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Least surprising scene
Greenberg: Another potentially staged scene of Ryan Poles and company staring at a depth chart while making very polite, surface-level small talk in the beginning of the episode. Nothing to get mad about, but as regular readers of this feature know, I’m not a “Hard Knocks” devotee, but from what I’ve read and heard, this season was missing a lot of honest talk about players between coaches and executives. Everything we heard was positive, basically, or it was them telling each other how hard it is to cut guys. I also liked Flus telling guys he has “three rules.” Every coach has three rules and they’re always some variation of what Flus said: “be on time, work hard and respect.” Just once I want to hear a coach say he has 72 rules and most of them are weird as hell.
Fishbain: It’s true that while we did actually see several cuts, we didn’t see the conversations that led to them. Poles telling defensive tackle Byron Cowart that they just wanted more defensive ends was about as real as we saw, and that isn’t surprising. It took until the season finale, but we finally got a Kevin Warren conversation about George Halas. And not that I necessarily expected it, but it’s not surprising to see Jaylon Johnson and Rome Odunze as players doing extra work after practice. Maybe a little of it was for the cameras? But those two would be high on the list of players who’d get some extra work in.
What we wanted to see more of
Greenberg: I wanted George McCaskey riding his scooter to Schreiber’s narration and, of course, I wanted the cameras waking up with Warren at 4:30 a.m. I also could’ve used a lot more inside scoop from the coaches on how they really feel about the players and some solo footage of Williams away from Halas Hall.
Fishbain: The only players who sat down and talked to the cameras all season were bubble guys or Tyson Bagent, aside from a couple of field trips with DJ Moore and some moments with Jaylon Johnson. I’d be curious how many players were asked to give “confessionals” and declined, and how much the Bears pushed production to take as little time away from the veterans as possible. Credit HBO for how to make Williams a main character without ever having him directly talk to the cameras. That would’ve been cool, but I get why his moments came thanks to being mic’d up.
I thought we’d at least get some kind of classic McCaskey quip to the cameras about them finally getting to come to Halas Hall.
That’s all folks 🎬#HardKnocks pic.twitter.com/B1yiUqbLUf
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) September 4, 2024
Final thoughts on the season
Greenberg: *Liev Schreiber voice* Like most Chicago Bears seasons, there was excitement at the beginning of “Hard Knocks,” but by the end, you’re just happy it’s over.
A lot of people thought this season was boring. Which it was, by design. The Bears were worried about not hurting feelings and that’s fine. They’re a football team, not a TV show. Now, let’s see them actually win more games than they lose, which is a rarity.
As a reporter covering the team, I was happy to witness some interactions behind the scenes. Now, did I learn a ton about the Bears? Not really. The Bears should be thrilled that this inside look at a team on the rise was, while not exciting, a win for the organization. Everyone seemed competent, respectful and, in terms of the actual football product, on the upswing. Williams’ image got a much-needed makeover after all the whispers about him coming out of college. That’s a win for him.
And now, thankfully, people will shut up about the Bears doing “Hard Knocks,” so that’s a win for everyone.
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Fishbain: What will the world look like next time the Bears are on “Hard Knocks”? How many Super Bowls will they have won? I can’t help but think that McCaskey’s long-running nightmare is finally over, and it wasn’t that bad, right? The Bears came out looking pretty good. It might not have been salacious or led to anything that would land on Page Six, but that’s what the Bears wanted. The juxtaposition between the Giants is also noteworthy — two teams that, as of now, seem on different tracks.
If anyone is humming the lyrics to “End of Beginning” for the next few weeks, or whenever Williams throws his first touchdown with the Chicago skyline in the background on Sunday, you’ll have HBO to thank.
(Photo: Quinn Harris / Getty Images)
