Packers almost certainly won’t be on ‘Hard Knocks’ in 2020

The Green Bay Packers won’t have to appear on the ‘Hard Knocks’ series in 2020.

A question every offseason is which NFL team will appear on HBO TV series Hard Knocks, but only a small selection of teams can be forced to take part in the show.

The Packers aren’t among them this year. According to Dan Hanzus of NFL.com, there are three ways to avoid mandatory inclusion on Hard Knocks.

One is if your team has a first-year head coach. That applied to the Packers in 2019, but not this year. Another is if your team has appeared on the show in the past 10 years. That one also doesn’t apply to the Packers.

The other way is if your team has reached the playoffs in any of the past two seasons. Bingo.

Had Green Bay failed to make the postseason in 2019, they would’ve been a great choice for the show. But Matt LaFleur guided his team back into the playoffs, meaning they won’t have to appear on the show this year or in 2021.

As Hanzus notes, any team can volunteer to appear on the show, so the Packers aren’t officially out of the running. But it’s very hard to imagine team president Mark Murphy, general manager Brian Gutekunst or LaFleur wanting to do so. Murphy would make the call, but it’s doubtful he would if his head coach and general manager were against it.

While it would be fascinating for fans to get a behind-the-scenes look at the team’s preparations for the 2020 season, there would be little benefit for the Packers. It’s therefore highly unlikely they would opt to be part of the show.

And given the fact they won’t be forced to be on the show, consider it very unlikely we’ll see the Packers appear on Hard Knocks, this year or next.