Miami Dolphins vs Minnesota Vikings, Week 4 2026

Dolphins vs Vikings puts Brian Flores on the opposite sideline from the team he used to run. He was Miami's head coach from 2019 to 2021, and he has spent the last three seasons building the Minnesota defense that has to stop them.

Kickoff is 4:05 PM ET on Sunday, October 4, 3:05 in the afternoon in Minneapolis, on FOX. From the opening snap this page runs itself: live score, real time score, game leaders, box scores, play-by-play with the game flow chart and team statistics, every panel updating without anyone hitting refresh.

Dolphins vs Vikings is also the first look at a Miami offense with a quarterback the franchise has not had on an opening day since 2021.

Dolphins vs Vikings Start Time, TV Channel and Live Stream

Date	Sunday, October 4, 2026
Kickoff	4:05 PM ET / 3:05 PM CT / 2:05 PM MT / 1:05 PM PT
TV	FOX
Venue	U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis
Roof	Fixed, 60 percent transparent
Home team	Minnesota Vikings

FOX carries Dolphins vs Vikings in the late afternoon window, which makes it a doubleheader game rather than a regional one, so more of the country sees it than sees a one o'clock kickoff. Miami sits an hour ahead of Minneapolis, so the visitors are playing on a five o'clock body clock.

Brian Flores Against the Team He Used to Run

Flores coached the Dolphins for three seasons and got them back-to-back winning years in 2020 and 2021, which Miami had not managed since 2002 and 2003. He has been Minnesota's defensive coordinator since 2023 and signed a contract extension this year, so this is not a coach passing through.

The record backs the reputation. His defense helped Minnesota to 14-3 in 2024, the second most wins in franchise history, and he was a finalist for Assistant Coach of the Year that season. Dolphins vs Vikings gives him a Miami offense that has been rebuilt almost from scratch, which is either a gift or a puzzle depending on how quickly the new pieces have learned each other.

Miami Has a New Opening Day Quarterback

For the first time since 2021, the Dolphins started a season with somebody new under center. Malik Willis arrived from Green Bay, where he spent two years behind Jordan Love and completed 79 percent of his throws at 10.9 yards an attempt with six touchdown passes and three more on the ground. Second year passer Quinn Ewers is the other name in the room.

The receivers changed with him. Jaylen Waddle went to Denver for a first, a third and a fourth in this year's draft, and general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan rebuilt around three rookies plus free agents Jalen Tolbert, Terrace Marshall Jr. and Jalen Reagor. Tolbert is the one with the recent production, 49 catches for 610 yards and seven touchdowns in his best Dallas season.

Dolphins vs Vikings is week four of finding out whether that adds up to an offense or a collection of parts.

Dolphins vs Vikings: The Job J.J. McCarthy Lost

Minnesota's quarterback story is the mirror image. Kyler Murray signed a one year deal in March after seven seasons and 87 starts in Arizona, competed with J.J. McCarthy through the spring and camp, and Kevin O'Connell named him the starter in August.

That is a first round pick from 2024 losing his job to a one year signing, and it is the sort of decision that only looks correct in hindsight. Three games in, Dolphins vs Vikings is early enough that the argument is still live and late enough that the tape means something.

Rosters are set. The cut to 53 passed on August 30. Follow the Dolphins and Vikings pages, and check the NFL standings a month into the season. The rest of the slate sits on the 2026 NFL schedule.

The Roof That Lets the Sky In

U.S. Bank Stadium solved the northern stadium problem by refusing to pick a side. The roof is fixed, so weather is never a factor, but roughly 60 percent of it, some 248,000 square feet on the south side, is transparent ETFE rather than steel and concrete. You sit in a climate controlled building and still watch the sky change over the course of an afternoon.

The front of the building carries five pivoting glass doors, the largest about 95 feet tall and 55 feet wide, which swing open on warm days and let actual outside air into the concourse. Early October in Minneapolis is right on the line where that becomes a question worth asking before you leave the house.

The roof is also asymmetrical with a catch basin gutter around it, built deliberately for heavy snow, which is a detail that matters far more in January than it does for Dolphins vs Vikings. The Vikings' explainer on how the roof works covers the engineering behind it.

Dolphins vs Vikings FAQ

Dolphins vs Vikings is a reunion nobody in Miami asked for, against a defense that knows exactly how the building it left is run. Come back on game day for inactives and the live score.

Last updated: August 27, 2026