The 18th season of NFL hit series Hard Knocks has followed the New York Jets around throughout training camp. Four episodes are in the books, with the season finale set to drop on HBO at 10:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday night, less than 48 hours before the 2023 NFL regular season kicks off. You can also watch Hard Knocks on the MAX app, as well as certain non-HBO streaming services such as YouTube TV.
Below, we'll recap the plot points, themes and top moments from the first four episodes, as well as predict what could be in store for the season finale.
Episode 1 Recap
The biggest storyline of the NFL offseason was the decision of former Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers to put on a new shade of green. Unsurprisingly, Rodgers' arrival is the primary focus of the first episode. In one of the show's very first scenes, Rodgers remarks that the Jets' Super Bowl III trophy from 1969 looks awfully lonely. The same can be said of Rodgers' Super Bowl XLV trophy from 2011, which represents the lone championship in 11 postseason appearances for the nearly 40-year-old four-time MVP. A montage of talking heads pontificating about Rodgers' desire to come to New York and another of the star QB walking out for his first practice with the Jets take up most of the first few minutes, but it's what came in between that marked the most memorable moment of the Hard Knocks season 18 pilot.
Addressing his team, head coach Robert Saleh channels his inner David Attenborough for a motivational anecdote from nature. "Did you know that the only bird in the world that will attack an eagle is a crow? It's a crow," Saleh begins. "There will be a whole lot of crows expecting us to fall on our face." The quizzical expressions around the room soon turn into looks of determination, as Saleh explains that the eagle pays no mind to the crow, instead soaring ever higher until the crow pecking at it suffocates and plummets to its death. He says this group can do the same by putting in the extra work every practice, every meeting, and every rep; an apt metaphor for a team called the Jets. The rest of the episode lays the groundwork for just why expectations are so high for this young group after Rodgers' arrival, highlighting the head-to-head matchup in practice between WR Garrett Wilson and CB Sauce Gardner, a pair of 2022 first-round picks who won Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year, respectively.
Episode 2 Recap
Five Jets made the list of the NFL's top 100 players in 2023, voted on by the players themselves. Gardner led the way at No. 23, Rodgers slipped 48 spots from the previous year but still came in at No. 51, Wilson debuted at No. 74, veteran LB C.J. Mosley was No. 46, and the player who finished second on the team behind Gardner at No. 40 was Quinnen "Q-Ball" Williams. The 25-year-old defensive lineman was the star of the second episode, dominating the Panthers' offensive line in joint practices and finishing with 11 sacks in one practice, per Rodgers' count.
While Gardner, Williams, and Mosley have the defense in midseason form already, the same isn't true for the offense, which was the team's weakness in 2022 and still looks suspect despite the addition of Rodgers. In an effort to fire up that side of the ball, Saleh lays into the offensive linemen with an expletive-laden tirade: "You can have a Hall of Fame quarterback, you can have two 10-plus million dollar receivers, you can have a reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year, you can have all kinds of skill in the running back room. None of it f------ matters until the big boys up front change who the f--- we are!" The head coach's outburst provides a sharp contrast to the lighthearted nature of an earlier segment showing the Jets' quarterback room of Rodgers, 2021 second-overall pick Zach Wilson and third-stringer Tim Boyle bonding and trash talking in the film room while watching side-by-side footage of Rodgers' hand-offs and run fakes.
Episode 3 Recap
The third episode centers around New York's joint practices with the Buccaneers, where tensions run high and often turn into multiplayer brawls as the Jets look to build off the previous week's shutout preseason win over the Panthers. Saleh doesn't mind the physicality, as it's a sign of the team's competitiveness. The coach explains early in the episode that there are four levels of competitiveness, independent of one's talent level: Commander, Competitor, Contender, and Survivor. Saleh seeks a group of internally motivated Competitors who bring a championship mindset daily no matter what, not Contenders motivated by money or fame, or Survivors doing just enough to get by. Commanders are the rare breed of Competitor who can bring others with them, depicted by Saleh with a photo of Ray Lewis. These Commanders shouldn't be confused with members of Washington's football team, most of whom have yet to surpass survivor status if the franchise's recent history is any indication.
Saleh acknowledges the offense for finally joining the party after a slow start to training camp, and he finishes up his speech with the team's signature saying, "All Gas No Brakes." The offense gets plenty of focus throughout the episode, as the Jets welcome free agent addition Dalvin Cook into the fold. Another central theme to the third episode is the importance of family, and Cook soon departs for the birth of his child in Florida, but the air of excitement around the running back room continues to build with the return of Breece Hall from his torn ACL. Rookie fifth-round pick Israel Abanikanda also gets some screen time, and there's palpable relief when the injury he suffers in the team's 13-6 preseason loss to the Buccaneers isn't as bad as it first appears.
The bond between Rodgers and longtime Packers teammate Randall Cobb is also put on display, as Cobb – who followed Rodgers from Green Bay to New York – reveals that his two boys call Rodgers "Uncle Aaron," and a third nephew/niece is on the way. WR Jerome Kapp provides perhaps the most viral moment of the series at the team's rookie show with his rendition of Eminem's final freestyle battle from the movie "8 Mile." Speaking of movies, "The Karate Kid" actor and Jet fan Ralph Macchio caps the episode by telling the team "To succeed in life, in all aspects, you need to find balance." For the Jets to find balance, the offense still needs to pull more weight.
Episode 4 Recap
Rodgers is getting frustrated by the offense's inconsistency with the regular season fast approaching, but an expletive-infused tirade from the star quarterback coupled with some instructions for his teammates gets the group back on track. He later makes his Jets debut in the team's preseason finale against the Giants, telling Giants linebacker Jihad Ward "don't poke the bear," after connecting with Garrett Wilson for a touchdown during his brief time in the game. Rodgers' on-field competitiveness offers a stark contrast to his relaxed off-field persona, which is showcased when he, TE C.J. Uzomah and DL Solomon Thomas rave about how much they enjoyed "Back to the Future: The Musical" on Broadway.
Though a bit anticlimactic for those rabidly following the team's every move and aware of the final cuts that broke hours before it aired, the fourth episode follows around numerous players on the bubble, such as undrafted rookie WRs Jason Brownlee and Xavier Gipson, Kapp, and DL Tanzel Smart, who promptly returns to the field against the Giants after getting a mid-game X-ray to try to bolster his chances of making the 53-man roster. There's also a heartfelt moment involving the whole defensive line, as DL coach Aaron Whitecotton has every member of the group say "I will not be the weakest link" as they build a physical chain out of carabiners.
Episode 5 Preview
Final cuts broke just before Episode 4 was set to air, which means the reactions to various players making and missing the team will be aired in the Hard Knocks season finale. We may also get a closer look at the team's offensive linemen, who haven't had much airtime since Saleh called them out in the second episode. After playing just one game over the previous two seasons, 2020 first-round pick Mekhi Becton has been named the team's starting right tackle. Looking at last year's season finale from the Lions can offer some additional clues for what we can expect from the Jets' season finale Tuesday night.
We got some memorable quotes from Lions coach Dan Campbell in that episode, and given how quotable Saleh has already been this year, he's almost certain to add another memorable metaphor or two in the fifth and final episode. Hard Knocks is every bit as much about the coaches as it is the players, and Saleh has stolen the show so far, which might be exactly what the Jets were hoping for given the mounting pressure on the team's newly assembled cast of players to perform and end a playoff drought that stretches back to the 2010 season.
