Houston Texans the "Favorites" to be on Hard Knocks

The Houston Texans, led by the best defensive player in the NFL, JJ Watt, are the “favorites” to be featured on HBO’s Hard Knocks in 2015.

The other eight teams that qualify to be on the series: Cleveland, Jacksonville, Tennessee, NY Giants, St. Louis, Minnesota, Washington and Tampa Bay.

Cleveland would be fascinating, but the NFL wouldn’t do that to Johnny Manziel. There’d be some interest in Tampa Bay and Tennessee because of their rookie QBs, but is that really fair to Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota? Jacksonville is boring, so are the Rams, and the Vikings could be a playoff team, but don’t have that many really interesting players right now.

The Redskins, with RGIII, would be my choice after the Texans.

Houston’s attractive for multiple reasons: 1) JJ Watt, 2) Jadeveon Clowney, 3) Arian Foster is one of the smarter, thought-provoking players at his position, 4) Vince Wilfork and 5) Bill O’Brien, who many view as one of the rising coaching stars in the NFL.