EAGAN, Minn. -- The Minnesota Vikings' 2026 schedule was released along with the rest of the NFL slate Thursday.
Presumptive starting quarterback Kyler Murray will get acquainted with his top NFC North rivals right away, as the Vikings will open the season with consecutive games against the Packers and Bears. They'll travel to Mexico City for their third international game in the past two years -- fifth in the past five -- and are scheduled for four primetime games despite the relative lack of buzz surrounding their season.
And some good news for a team that plans to be in the late-season playoff race: Three of their final four games, and five of their final seven, will be played at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Here's what's in store for the Vikings:
Vikings 2026 regular-season schedule
Week 1: Sept. 13 vs. Green Bay Packers
Week 2: Sept. 20 at Chicago Bears
Week 3: Sept. 27 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Week 4: Oct. 4 vs. Miami Dolphins
Week 5: Oct. 11 at New Orleans Saints
Week 6: Bye
Week 7: Oct. 25 vs. Indianapolis Colts
Week 8: Nov. 1 at Detroit Lions
Week 9: Nov. 9 vs. Buffalo Bills (MNF)
Week 10: Nov. 15 at Green Bay Packers
Week 11: Nov. 22 at San Francisco 49ers (SNF, Mexico City)
Week 12: Nov. 29 vs. Atlanta Falcons
Week 13: Dec. 6 vs. Carolina Panthers
Week 14: Dec. 10 at New England Patriots (TNF)
Week 15: Dec. 20 vs. Detroit Lions (SNF)
Week 16: TBD vs. Washington Commanders
Week 17: Jan. 3 at New York Jets
Week 18: TBD vs. Chicago Bears
Strength of schedule: The Vikings have the 11th-hardest schedule in the league (opponents had a .519 winning percentage in 2025).
DraftKings over/under win total: 8.5
ESPN analyst Mike Clay's projected win total: 7.5
Biggest takeaway
There is a really sticky six-week stretch in the middle of the season that the Vikings will need to survive to stay in the playoff hunt. Beginning with a Week 9 game against the Bills, through a Week 15 game against the Lions, the Vikings will play four primetime games. Two of those will come on short weeks and on the road, against the Packers in Week 10 and Patriots in Week 14.
Circle these dates
The Vikings will host the Packers in Week 1 and travel to Chicago to play the Bears in Week 2, marking the second time in the common draft era that the Vikings will have opened a season against those two rivals in consecutive weeks. The other time was in 2003, when the Vikings beat both the Packers and Bears en route to a 6-0 start.
It will be a fun, intense and hugely consequential series of September games and will put a premium on being ready to play at a high level coming out of the gate. If Murray wins the team's quarterback derby over J.J. McCarthy, as expected, he will not get much of a honeymoon.
Bold prediction
The Vikings will need to beat the Bears in Week 18 to get into the playoffs. With that tough primetime stretch to start the second half of the season, it's reasonable to think the team will have some catching up to do from a record perspective. Divisional records can often have a big impact on tiebreakers, and whether it's for the division title or a wild-card spot, the Bears will stand between the Vikings and their preferred outcome.
Sneaky advantage
The Vikings probably would have preferred to avoid another international game, but the upside is that they will avoid a trip to Levi's Stadium, where they are winless in three games, including the playoffs. While the 49ers will be the official home team in Mexico City, the crowd is likely to be more neutral than it otherwise would have been. At worst, it's probably a net neutral scheduling twist.
