Oakland Raiders to be featured on Hard Knocks this season

Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock
photo courtesy: Associated Press

HBO's training camp series "Hard Knocks" has chosen the team they will feature in 2019.

On Tuesday HBO announced that the Oakland Raiders would be the that team.

Both Gruden brothers, Jay Gruden in Washington and Jon Gruden in Oakland, were available for the annual series, but ultimately the intrigue surrounding the Raiders were much more compelling to cover.

Raiders hired Mike Mayock as their general manager in December. Since that time the team has added two big personalities in linebacker Vontaze Burfict and wide receiver Antonio Brown and drafted two surprise picks in running back Josh Jacobs and defensive end Clenin Ferrell. Add to this the fact that Isaiah Crowell was lost for the season in OTAs which forced the team to bring back Doug Martin and the uncertainty of the Marshawn Lynch's intention to play for the team this season, the team has a lot of tantalizing character stories to follow on Hard Knocks.

Personalities aside, the bigger fascination is the future location of the team. Raiders came to an agreement with the city of Oakland to use the Oakland Coliseum for the 2019 and potentially the 2020 season, depending on how fast their new home in Las Vegas can be completed. The current timeline has the the new stadium opening in time for the 2020 season.

While Mark Davis and Oakland made an agreement for the current season, there is still resentment and pending litigation against the team for their move. This too should play well for a television audience depending on how far the producers are willing to delve into the story in a five episode series.

All in all this should be a very entertaining season of Hard Knocks. The new season will premiere on August 6 on HBO.