Following a seven-year hiatus, the New England Patriots were again the class of the AFC during the 2025 NFL season.
Now, both the Patriots and their Super Bowl LX opponents -- the Seattle Seahawks -- will be back in the spotlight over the next two summers.
"The Seahawks will be featured on this summer’s Hard Knocks. The Patriots will be featured on the 2027 summer Hard Knocks," ESPN senior NFL insider Adam Schefter posted on X. "The two teams in this past season’s Super Bowl will take center stage again the next two summers."
The Seahawks will be featured on this summer’s Hard Knocks.
The Patriots will be featured on the 2027 summer Hard Knocks.
The two teams in this past season’s Super Bowl will take center stage again the next two summers. pic.twitter.com/oDrILZBgVc
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 31, 2026
New England and Seattle will both be making its Hard Knocks debuts.
The NFL also announced the subjects of the long-running HBO docuseries for the next two years for the first time.
The league previously had a set of rules for which teams were eligible to be on the show, which often made it easy for the Patriots to avoid the selection.
NFL teams could previously turn down Hard Knocks if they'd made the playoffs in either of the past two seasons, and with New England making the postseason 11 straight times from 2009 to 2019 and 18 times from 2001 to 2021, the group was often able to do that.
The Patriots were also ineligible the last two years because they had first-year head coaches (Jerod Mayo in 2024 and Mike Vrabel in 2025).
New England will be the final AFC East team to appear on Hard Knocks, as the New York Jets had the honor in both 2010 and 2023, the Miami Dolphins were in 2012 and during the in-season version in 2023 and the Buffalo Bills were selected for 2025.
Hard Knocks debuted in 2001 with the Baltimore Ravens being the featured team.
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