The Miami Dolphins officially released their full schedule, which features a lot of competition across the board. Though there is plenty to say about the opponents, and having the second-hardest, there is plenty to be said about the orientation of opponents, and more.

Here are the five main takeaways from the Dolphins 2026 schedule:

Though it makes all the sense in the world for the Dolphins to travel to the West Coast and remain there, the team gets the benefit of facing at least one wild-card opponent.

Miami opens its season against the Las Vegas Raiders, who are in a rebuild of their own. The jury is out on whether Fernando Mendoza will be a starter, and that could benefit the Dolphins. 

Their Week 2 matchup against the 49ers might be very tough, as San Francisco remains one of the better NFC teams in the league. Though it would be great to start the season undefeated, this could be a 1-1 situation to begin the Jeff Hafley era.

The NFL schedule makers may have been paying attention to plenty of the narratives regarding the Dolphins having to play in cold-weather games. Instead of facing off against the Packers at home or in more favorable conditions, Miami will travel to Green Bay in the dead of December.

Willis played well in cold-weather climates as part of the Packers the past two seasons, so it will be up to the rest of the team to try to grind out a win on the road in Lambeau Field, when it could be freezing temperatures.

There might be nothing worse for a team than an early BYE week. The usual hope for squads is to get a rest down the stretch as opposed to beginning the season with said rest. 

The Dolphins have a Week 6 bye, meaning they face 12 straight games after that. In terms of longevity and wanting to have a break to potentially make a playoff push, this BYE week placement will not aid that fact.

To make matters worse on the early BYE, the Dolphins will also face a gauntlet of playoff teams to end their season. Weeks 13 to 18 all feature games against playoff teams from the 2025 season.

Week 13 starts with the Broncos, followed by matchups with the Bears, Packers, Chargers, Bills, and Patriots. This team has certainly been granted no favors.

There are five teams that were not granted any primetime games, and the Dolphins are one of them. Granted, there is not a lot of belief that the team will be competitive, but this goes to show that matchmakers simply do not see a strong season coming from Miami.

There may be a situation where the Dolphins can get flexed into a primetime slot if they surprise everyone by being far more competitive, but that might not be the case. They may also be flexed into a game where they can also play season ruiner for a playoff hopeful.

Either way, this is a rough schedule all-around for the Dolphins.