We’re a week away from the August 6 premiere of the latest season of the HBO/NFL Films Hard Knocks series, this time focused on the Oakland Raiders, and HBO has now put out a 30-second teaser trailer for the new season. Here’s that teaser:
As expected after June’s announcement that this season would focus on the Raiders, it looks like there’s going to be a lot here about Oakland coach Jon Gruden, the former ESPN analyst who just completed his first season at the helm of that team (complete with plenty of controversy). The trailer includes a couple of shots of Gruden and the line “Jon Gruden’s new array of talent will be on display.”
HBO also released a second teaser entitled “Autumn Wind,” narrated by Liev Schreiber.
And part of that “new array of talent” is a big free agency acquisition in receiver Antonio Brown, who’s also shown here briefly. But there are also some notable questions about how existing quarterback Derek Carr will do this year, especially with Gruden recently talking up Nathan Peterman (of all people), and the teaser has lots of shots of Carr as well. So it makes sense that they’re the three figures featured in the promotional posters HBO sent out, seen pasted together up top. We’ll see how this all comes together when Hard Knocks premieres on HBO Aug. 6.
Hard Knocks will air Tuesdays on HBO in August at 10 ET/PT, beginning on August 6.
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.