The first episode of this season’s Hard Knocks on HBO was extremely interesting not only as a Miami Dolphins fan, but also as an NFL fan who’s been without the game for months.
Players to Watch Out For
From the very start we knew to watch out for Chad Johnson, who’s first appearance including lines such as, “If you pause Call of Duty for someone, then that’s the f—–g one.” Johnson, formerly known as Chad Ochocinco, will definitely be the class clown of the group and the favorite among many viewers.
Besides the star players what I really enjoy about Hard Knocks is where rookies fight for spots on the team. These are a lot of the guys who when you first see them on TV you say, “Where did he come from?” My guy to watch for is Les Brown. This is Brown’s first time playing football since high school. In college Brown played basketball during his years and never even touched a football. After basketball didn’t work out Brown went to an NFL tryout where he was spotted and given a chance on an NFL team. In Brown’s first episode he was described as ““Very coachable, does exactly what you ask him to do, but he is a complete liability in pass protection and run block” I expect the Dolphins to keep giving him chances and he is definitely my guy to look out for.
Story lines
Obviously the biggest story that came out of this episode is the quarterback battle. Three quarterbacks including David Garrard, Matt Moore, and Ryan Tannehill, the first round pick out of Texas A&M, are all fighting for the #1 spot on the Dolphins depth chart. At the end of this episode it was revealed that Garrard had been named the starter going into pre-season based on his training camp efforts, but according to Head Coach Joe Philbin, “the battle is a fluid situaton”. Don’t expect David Garrard to have just won the spot yet, pre-season will still be the biggest factor
Rating
/5
I give it 4/5 Ochocinco Heads.
