We Now Know the Vikings’ 2026 Opponents
As the regular season of the 2025 campaign came to an end and playoff teams prepare for their big matchups, eliminated organizations can look ahead to next year’s 17-game slate, which has been finalized alongside the division standings.
We now know the 14 opponents the Vikings face in the 17 games next year — the three divisional rivals will each be on the other sidelines twice. Here’s the list of teams and why the Vikings face them and whether the game will be at home or on the road:
- Chicago Bears (NFC North, home/away)
- Green Bay Packers (NFC North, home/away)
- Detroit Lions (NFC North, home/away)
- Carolina Panthers (NFC South, home)
- Atlanta Falcons (NFC South, home)
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers (NFC South, away)
- New Orleans Saints (NFC South, away)
- Buffalo Bills (AFC East, home)
- Miami Dolphins (AFC East, home)
- New York Jets (AFC East, away)
- New England Patriots (AFC East, away)
- San Francisco 49ers (3rd place NFC West, away)
- Washington Commanders (3rd place NFC East, home)
- Indianapolis Colts (3rd place, AFC South, home)
The Vikings, of course, will have the six division games, playing each of the three opponents once at home and once on the road. In the 2025 season, the Vikings went 4-2 within the NFC North.
Every year, the NFL schedule uses a rotating formula to determine the list of opponents before dates and kickoff times are assigned. While the order and timing change annually, the opponents themselves are mostly predictable years in advance, with three exceptions.
The Vikings face one NFC division on a three-year rotation and one AFC division on a four-year rotation. This ensures that every team plays every other team in the league on a regular cycle and visits every stadium at least once every eight years.
In 2026, Minnesota will have meetings with the NFC South on the docket. In the 2025 season, the Vikings (and the entire NFC North) played against the NFC East, logging a 3-1 record. The 9-8 Vikings actually had a better record than all of the NFC South teams. Of course, that division could be stronger next year.
From the AFC, it’ll be the AFC East, just like in 2022, when the Vikings swept the division, including a triumph against the Bills in one of the best regular-season games in NFL history. Buffalo and New England are playoff teams. In 2025, the Vikings recorded a 2-2 record against the AFC North.
Beyond the division matchups and rotation games, three opponents are determined by where the Vikings finished in the NFC North the previous season. Those games come against teams from the remaining NFC divisions that finished in the same spot in their divisions.
The final game on the schedule is an interconference matchup introduced in 2021. It pits teams from opposite conferences that finished in the same divisional spot, rotating which division hosts the extra game each year.
The third-place Indianapolis Colts will visit U.S. Bank Stadium. A fourth-place finish for Kevin O’Connell’s squad would’ve changed that to the Tennessee Titans. That home game is the reason why the Vikings will have nine games at home and eight on the road.
The NFL usually releases the full official schedule in May, shortly after the Draft.