Oakland Raiders: Best moments from Hard Knocks episode 1

The Oakland Raiders’ turn on HBO’s Hard Knocks began on Tuesday night but what were the best moments of the first episode with the silver and black?

While the Oakland Raiders began training camp a couple of weeks ago, HBO’s Hard Knocks, which will follow Jon Gruden’s team for 2019, began on Tuesday night. In truth, it was more or less just an introductory episode of the show that offered looks at the early goings on in Oakland while introducing some key figures around the team. It was a mid-tier episode in terms of qualtiy.

Even still, any episode of Hard Knocks — particularly an episode that concerns a team as polarizing as the Raiders — is going to have plenty of moments that are highly entertaining. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the best moments from episode 1 with the Raiders.

4. Establishing the culture

One of the subtle themes that was present throughout episode 1 as we looked at Raiders training camp was the fact that the culture is changing in Oakland under Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock. Perhaps the best example of this concerned Ronald Ollie. The former Last Chance U star had the chance to be a feel-good story. Yet, when he was shown to be irresponsible and unavailable, Gruden and the team cut bait.

That, along with seeing things like the rapport between Derek Carr and Gruden, the interactions between teammates and the accountability being put on the players, it’s clear that this is an old-school culture being implanted in Oakland. It’s entertaining to see it budding on Hard Knocks.

More from NFL Spin Zone

• Dallas Cowboys made the trade everyone else should have made
• Pittsburgh Steelers rookie sleeper everyone should be talking about
• Anthony Richardson putting jaw-dropping talent on display immediately
• Denver Broncos’ stud wide receiver might be out for a while
• Washington Commanders: Three takeaways from win over Ravens

3. Jon Gruden

The simple reason that Jon Gruden doesn’t “rank” higher among the best moments of episode 1 is that it was expected. Whenever the Oakland Raiders were announced as the subject for this season, we knew that the head coach was going to deliver on each episode. And he didn’t disappoint right out of the gate.

From his speech about not liking dreams to begin the episode and season to having a man-to-man talk with Johnathan Abram about being too physical in non-contact practices, Gruden was clearly the focal-point of the inaugural episode of this season. While the episode as a whole may not have been the best installment in the series, the head coach gives hope that it’ll always be entertaining.

2. The season/episode intro

For the opening credits on Hard Knocks, HBO made a little tweak to cater things to the Oakland Raiders and it was glorious. Setting the introduction to a reading of “The Autumn Wind” and finishing it off with Al Davis’ iconinc “Just win, baby” quote really gave the first intro of the new series a special feel that tied it to the subject. There’s not much more to say than that but it set the tone perfectly.

1. Seriously, Johnathan Abram and Clelin Ferrell riding horses was magical

It may seem simple, but fellow Raiders first-round rookies, safety Johnathan Abram and edge rusher Clelin Ferrell, riding horses through a vineyard was bar-none the best part of Hard Knocks episode 1. Just look at it:

Literally every moment of their budding bromance was wonderful. From Abram showing off his knowledge about horses to tossing grapes to one another to “Old Town Road” playing over the scene to their brotherly riding hand-in-hand while singing, it was all fantastic television.

It’s great to see the football on Hard Knocks. However, it’s the behind-the-scenes moments like this one that make the show so compelling. This was a pristine example of that and, as a fan of the show, we can only hope that this isn’t the last we see of the Abram-Ferrell bromance — even if they don’t get back up on their horses.