Cardinals Won't Feature on HBO's Hard Knocks in 2025

The Arizona Cardinals avoided the docuseries for training camp and the regular season.

Dec 8, 2024; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Detailed view of an Arizona Cardinals helmet at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

ARIZONA -- The Arizona Cardinals will not be featured on HBO's Hard Knocks series for either training camp or the regular season, as confirmed by the NFL today.

The league announced the Buffalo Bills will feature during the summer series while the NFC East (Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants) would be featured later during the regular season.

The Cardinals were one of many teams who could have appeared on camera for the series, as they fell under the NFL's following criteria:

Cardinals Not on Hard Knocks

• The Cardinals did not have a first-year head coach
• Arizona did not participate in In-Season Hard Knocks the last two years
• The Cardinals also weren't featured in the training camp edition the previous eight years.

This made Arizona eligible along with the following teams:

Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Buffalo Bills
Carolina Panthers
Cincinnati Bengals
Denver Broncos
Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Kansas City Chiefs
Miami Dolphins
Minnesota Vikings
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
Tennessee Titans
Washington Commanders

The Cardinals previously did appear on the in-season Hard Knocks series back in 2022, which was Kliff Kingsbury's final year coaching the organization.

Names such as DeAndre Hopkins and J.J. Watt were still on the team and highlighted during the program, too.

Would Cardinals Have Been Good Choice for Hard Knocks?

You could make a compelling case the Cardinals would have been a strong option for the series given their rise under Jonathan Gannon in the last two years since taking over.

After narrowly missing the playoffs in 2024, the Cardinals welcomed some pretty big names through both free agency and the NFL Draft to bolster their roster and make serious push for the postseason.

Between the pressure on Marvin Harrison Jr., the uprising of Trey McBride and the make-or-break chatter surrounding Kyler Murray, storylines would have been aplenty for producers to follow in training camp.

However, the league did just fine with choosing Buffalo - a team expected to compete for a Super Bowl - and a very intriguing NFC East division later down the line.