CLEVELAND -- Even before Baker Mayfield emerged as one of the best young players in football, the Cleveland Browns were one of the NFL's most fascinating teams.
With the Browns featured on HBO's "Hard Knocks," fans all over the world were offered a glimpse inside Cleveland's Training Camp, where personalities such as Mayfield, Jarvis Landry, Myles Garrett, Carl Nassib, Brogan Roback and Devon Cajuste helped make for one of the most entertaining seasons in the show's history.
On Tuesday, "Hard Knocks" will kick off its next season, which will focus on the Oakland Raiders. But according to the show's executive producer, HBO strongly considered making a return to Northeast Ohio this summer.
"It was very much a consideration and something we talked about internally and externally a lot," Hard Knocks executive producer Ken Rogers told Jimmy Traina on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast this week. "What it would mean for the franchise to repeat a team twice in a row -- not just the Cleveland Browns franchise, but the 'Hard Knocks' franchise.
"We've always felt like changing it up has allowed the show to be on the air for 18 years now. The reason why I think the show stays relevant is that we change every year. That being said, if we were ever going to repeat a team, it might have been this year with the Cleveland Browns repeating from last year."
And for good reason.
For as intriguing as the Browns were last year, they are even more so this year following Mayfield's emergence, the acquisition of star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and the personality of first-year head coach Freddie Kitchens. What's more is opposed to last summer, when Cleveland was coming off an 0-16 season, the Browns enter the 2019 campaign facing no shortage of expectations after compiling a 7-8-1 record last year.
"There certainly is enough change. As you talked about, the coaching staff has changed. Bob Wylie isn't there anymore, so who's taking over the offensive line?" Rogers said. "Obviously Odell coming in would be a big storyline. It was a top consideration, no doubt."
HBO opted to go with the Raiders instead -- although it's unclear whose choice it was for the show to not to return to Cleveland. Having been featured on 'Hard Knocks a year ago and laying claim to a first-year head coach, the Browns possessed multiple exemptions that would have allowed them to refuse once again being the subject of the show this season.
Rogers admitted that returning to Cleveland would have been appealing for the show, for a multitude of reasons. Ultimately, however, it wasn't meant to be.
"Their level of interest certainly wasn't what it was last year," Rogers admitted. "As it turned out, all of us sort of agreed that maybe going in a different direction would be even better.
"At the end of the day, we felt like the Raiders were equal in terms of storylines and a bit fresher in terms of some of the characters. We'd be continuing a story [with the Browns], but we'd lack the ability to introduce them."
