Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Leading Candidates for HBO's Next Edition of Hard Knocks

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are reportedly front-runners to be the next NFL team featured on HBO’s Hard Knocks series, according to ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas.

The New York Jets and their flamboyant head coach Rex Ryan were featured in last summer’s series, the sixth edition of the all-access training camp spectacle.

The Buccaneers were one of the NFL’s biggest surprises in 2010, coming off a 3-13 campaign in 2009 to finish 10-6 and on the verge of making the playoffs in arguably the toughest division in football, the NFC South, which sent the NFC-best Atlanta Falcons (13-3) and the New Orleans Saints (11-5) to the playoffs.

Sophomore quarterback Josh Freeman emerged as a budding young star in 2010, tossing 25 touchdowns to just six interceptions after throwing 10 touchdowns and 18 picks as a rookie.

Freeman improved his quarterback rating from 2009 by 36.1 points in 2010 with his 95.9 rating, sixth in the league behind familiar names like Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers and Michael Vick, and topping the likes of Peyton Manning, Matt Ryan and Drew Brees in that category.

Brees set the season-over-season record when he was with the San Diego Chargers, making a 37.3-point improvement from 2003-2004. He’s the only quarterback to have a bigger QB rating turnaround than Freeman in NFL history.

Freeman also posted 13 consecutive games with a touchdown pass, the longest streak in team history.

Couple that with a 34-year-old head coach in Raheem Morris, who was in the running for Coach of the Year honors in 2010, and a pair of impact rookies from last season in wide receiver Mike Williams and running back LeGarrette Blount, both of whom received Offensive Rookie of the Year consideration, and you have the makings of a match made in cable-TV heaven.

Williams fell just shy of 1,000 yards receiving in his rookie year and caught a Buccaneers franchise record 11 touchdowns. Meanwhile, Blount eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark by just seven yards, averaging 5.01 yards per carry (a single-season franchise record) with six touchdowns—and he did so while getting double-digit carries in just 11 games.

And don’t forget about guys like veteran cornerback Ronde Barber, likely in his last season, and tight end Kellen Winslow, who, after earning a reputation as a loudmouth as a youngster, has kept relatively quiet since his arrival in Tampa Bay.

If the Tampa Bay Buccaneers progress as expected over the next few seasons, 2010 will be remembered as the year that started it all.

And HBO wants some of that.

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