Football

2026 Schedule Release Set: Five Dolphins Predictions

By Alain Poupart Sports Illustrated

Updated May 9, 2026 8:16 AM

When will new Miami Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley make his return to Green Bay? How many prime-time games with the Dolphins have? Will they open at home or on the road?

The answers to those questions pertaining to the 2026 Miami Dolphins schedule will come Thursday, May 14 at 8 p.m. ET, the NFL announced Friday - because the release of the schedule has become such a big thing that it now gets its own announcement.

Additional, every international game will be announced Wednesday at 9 a.m. ET, with the league's rights-holder also traditionally unveiling one game each ahead of the full announcement.

It indeed is a big deal around the NFL, regardless of the fact that each team's opponents already were determined immediately after the end of the 2025 regular season because everything is based on a rigid formula - that some fans should understand never gives preferential treatment to any team because it's a pure fill-in-the-blank process.

Now, the timing of each game in terms of date and time is another story, and that one leaves for interpretation and value judgment, which maybe is part of the appeal.

Regardless, the when and what time is what we'll find out Thursday.

Here are five predictions for the Dolphins' 2026 schedule, which as a reminder will feature:

Home games against the:

Buffalo Bills

New York Jets

New England Patriots

Cincinnati Bengals

Kansas City Chiefs

Los Angeles Chargers

Chicago Bears

Detroit Lions

And road games against:

Buffalo Bills

New York Jets

New England Patriots

Indianapolis Colts

Denver Broncos

Las Vegas Raiders

Green Bay Packers

Minnesota Vikings

FIVE PREDICTIONS FOR THE 2026 DOLPHINS SCHEDULE

1. The Dolphins will face the San Francisco 49ers in Mexico City

OK, so we start off by maybe cheating a bit considering this matchup was reported by NBC Sports Bay Area several weeks ago, though there has been no announcement from the NFL yet. It's also easy to connect the dots because the Dolphins are among the 10 NFL teams that hold marketing rights in Mexico along with the Arizona Cardinals, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, Houston Texans, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Rams, Pittsburgh Steelers, and the 49ers.

Of those teams, the 49ers have home games this season against Arizona, Las Vegas and Miami.

The earlier report also had a specific date of November 22, which is the Sunday of Week 11. So the prediction here is Dolphins at 49ers in Mexico City on Sunday, November 22 at 8:15 p.m.

2. The Dolphins will not have a prime-time presence

Because they're starting over with an stripped-down roster, a new head coach and a new quarterback with a lot of potential but still unproven, expectations are pretty low for the Dolphins this season - in some places brutal.

That means the Dolphins won't come close to the four prime-time games they had last year - and remember that initially was five before the Dolphins home against Cincinnati was flexed out of the Week 16 Sunday night spot.

We'll go so far as to suggest the Dolphins will not be scheduled for a prime-time game other than that Mexico City matchup against the 49ers.

For comparison, the 2019 Dolphins, who also were in rebuilding mode in Brian Flores' first season as head coach, had one prime-time game, a Monday night matchup against the Steelers.

3. The Dolphins will get one of those either/or games

For the past few years, the NFL have listed five games during a late-season weekend as TBD, with the league selecting two of those matchups for national television slots on Saturday.

In Week 17 last year, for example, Houston at L.A. Chargers and Baltimore at Green Bay were chose as Saturday games while three other games listed as TBD were played on Sunday.

Because the NFL will want to leave itself an opportunity despite the low expectations to showcase the Dolphins, who still have a pretty good national following, look for Miami to get one of those TBD slots in Week 16 or 17.

The Dolphins have gone through this before, and had games against the Raiders in 2020 and Bills in 2022 selected as the Saturday night game on TBD weekends.

4. The Dolphins will play at Lambeau Field early in the season, but not in the season opener

Hafley's return to Green Bay, where he served as defensive coordinator the past two seasons, is one of the cooler storylines for Miami's 2026 season, but we simply don't expect the NFL to want to put that matchup right away.

And because the Dolphins played at Lambeau Field on Thanksgiving night in 2024 in their last visit to Green Bay, it makes sense for the NFL to not make it a cold-weather game again. It also would be a surprise to see that game in prime time because of the last matchup along with Miami's low expectations.

So we'll go ahead and make it Miami at Green Bay in a 1 p.m. game in late September or early October.

As a bonus here, we'll go ahead and predict the Dolphins will face former head coach Mike McDaniel and the L.A. Chargers at Hard Rock Stadium in the first half of the season while the return angle is more front and center than if playoff ramifications are involved.

The teams played in Miami last year in October, and we very well could see a repeat of that.

5. The Dolphins will finish the season at home against New England

This simply is a matter of doing the math, and the Dolphins finished the past two seasons on the road against the Jets and against the Patriots.

This is where, of course, someone could point out that Miami had three straight finales at home - against the Patriots in 2021, Jets in 2022 and Bills in 2023 - but there is no necessary flip here and the weather also is a lot nicer in South Florida in early January.

As for an opponent, we'll go ahead and toss a three-sided coin (just use your imagination) and go with the Patriots again.

Bonus prediction: The Dolphins will open at home

The Dolphins have alternated between starting at home and on the road for the past five years (at New England, vs. New England, at L.A. Chargers, vs. Jacksonville, at Indianapolis), but it's not why we've got them opening at home in 2026.

The reason is simpler.

Our prediction is that the NFL will not have the Dolphins open with two road games and the Dolphins definitely will be on the road in Week 2 because Hard Rock Stadium will be hosting the Bruno Mars Romantic Tour on Saturday, September 19 and Sunday, September 20.

If the NFL indeed doesn't give Miami back-to-back road games to start the season - which would not be a nice way to welcome Hafley to the league - then we'd be looking at the likelihood of Miami having two afternoon home games in September for the first time since 2022.

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This story was originally published May 9, 2026 at 8:02 AM.