A shot of sprinklers watering green grass on the gridiron. A slow-mo replay of a tight spiral hurdling its way through the blue sky. A late-round draft pick sweating through the first wave of cuts.
For decades, these sights and sounds have unofficially marked the beginning of a new NFL season as the familiar scenes in HBO’s annual hit docuseries Hard Knocks: Training Camp. That show will be back this summer to usher in another exciting season of NFL football.
Although it’s not known which team Hard Knocks: Training Camp will follow leading up to the 2025 campaign, the NFL recently loosened its criteria to determine which franchises are eligible to appear on the show.
So, following the new guidelines and by the process of elimination, let’s find out which fan bases could have the opportunity to watch their favorite team on Hard Knocks this year:
Franchises who hired a coach this offseason are not eligible to be featured on Hard Knocks. This eliminates the seven teams who rode the coaching carousel following the 2024 campaign: the Las Vegas Raiders, Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Jets, Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints, Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots.
The Hard Knocks: In Season edition of the show began in 2021 following the Indianapolis Colts throughout their 9–8 campaign. The show pivoted in 2024 by featuring all four teams in the AFC North throughout the year, and the NFL plans to highlight each division on Hard Knocks: In Season every eight years. The Hard Knocks: In Season division has yet to be announced for 2025 or ’26, but those four teams won’t be featured on Hard Knocks: Training Camp this summer.
These nine teams have appeared on Hard Knocks: Training Camp over the last eight years and won’t be the show’s topic this summer: the Bears (2024), Jets (2023), Detroit Lions (2022), Cowboys (2021), Los Angeles Chargers (2020), Los Angeles Rams (2020), Raiders (2019), Cleveland Browns (2018) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2017).
If your favorite team hasn’t been mentioned above, the NFL Films crew could be heading your way this summer. Here is the full list of teams eligible for Hard Knocks in 2025—as long as they are not in the to-be-determined division featured on Hard Knocks: In Season.
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