Dolphins Season Finale Has a Date and Time

The Miami Dolphins will face the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium

Miami Dolphins running back De'Von Achane (28) steps out of bounds after carrying the football against New England Patriots safety Craig Woodson (31) during the fourth quarter at Hard Rock Stadium in Week 2. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Miami Dolphins' season finale against the New England Patriots now has a date and time, and it came as expected.

The Dolphins will face the Patriots at Gillette Stadium at 4:25 p.m. ET as part of the late-afternoon doubleaher on Sunday, January 4.

The reason the game will be played at 4:25 p.m. and not 1 p.m. involves the race for the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs, which involves the Patriots along with the Denver Broncos and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Broncos and Patriots currently are tied for first in the conference standings, though Denver holds the tiebreaker advantage and will clinch the No. 1 seed with a victory against the Los Angeles Chargers. The NFL didn't want to remove from the meaning of that game by having the Broncos clinch the No. 1 seed if the Patriots and Jaguars had lost earlier.

The Jaguars need losses by both Denver and New England, along with a victory against the Tennessee Titans at 1 p.m., to secure the No. 1 seed in the AFC. Since the Jaguars victory is a must for them to clinch the No. 1 seed, there was no loss of incentive by putting them before the other two games.

Jacksonville, though, needs the win to clinch the AFC South title and beat out the Houston Texans, who could overtake the Jaguars with a victory against the Indianapolis Colts and a Jacksonville loss.

As expected once the Pittsburgh Steelers lost at Cleveland to create a winner-take-all scenario for the AFC North title and the last playoff spot in the conference, the NFL put the Steelers game against the Baltimore Ravens at Acrisure Stadium as the regular season finale next Sunday night.

The two stand-alone games Saturday will be Carolina at Tampa Bay at 4:30 p.m. and Seattle at San Francisco at 8 p.m.

Carolina will clinch the NFC South with a victory in the Saturday game, while the Bucs still would need one loss by the Atlanta Falcons in their final two games — at the L.A. Rams on Monday night and against the New Orleans Saints next Sunday — to win the division for a fifth consecutive season.

If the Bucs do defeat Carolina but Atlanta wins its final two games, that would create a three-way tie atop the NFC South at 8-9, but the Panthers would get the tiebreaker.

Seattle and San Francisco, meanwhile, not only will be playing for the NFC West title next Saturday night, but also for the top seed in the NFC playoffs.

DOLPHINS 2026 SCHEDULE NOTES

The Dolphins are down to one unknown opponent for their 2026 schedule, and they won't get to know who that will be until next weekend.

The last of the unknowns will be the third-place finisher in the NFC West, and that will be either the aforementioned San Francisco 49ers or the Los Angeles Rams. That will be a road game for the Dolphins, the "17th game."

The other two opponents that were not predetermined based on the NFL's scheduling formation have become the Cincinnati Bengals at Hard Rock Stadium and the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium in two repeats from the 2025 schedule.

The Dolphins always were schedule to play the AFC West and the NFC North next season, along with their home-and-homes against the other AFC East opponents.

Against the AFC West, the Dolphins will face the L.A. Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs at Hard Rock Stadium and the Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders on the road.

Against the NFC North, Miami will face the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions at Hard Rock Stadium and the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings on the road.