When Will Dolphins Season Finale Be?

It's been established (for seventh months now) that the Miami Dolphins will face the New England Patriots in their 2025 season finale, and now we're a few days away from finding out exactly when the game will take place.

As part of their scheduling procedure, every Week 18 game on the NFL schedule is listed as day and time TBD (to be determined), with the league announcing the finalized schedule no later than this Sunday night.

The NFL will have two games on Saturday, January 4, at 4:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET, the season-ending Sunday night matchup at 8:20 p.m. ET, and a full slate of games at 1 p.m. and 4:25 p.m. on Sunday, January 5.

So where will the Dolphins be slated?

THE DOLPHINS AND THE SCHEDULE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS

When it comes to deciding the three stand-alone games, the NFL always will be looking for matchups involving something at stake for both teams to boost ratings and maintain competitive balance because if one of the teams has nothing at stake in terms of playoff considerations, what's to stop them from resting starters?

The NFL also wants to avoid having games rendered meaningless based on a previous result of the weekend, which is why you could see Eastern time zone teams playing at 4:25 p.m. ET when logic would dictate a 1 p.m. start.

After the results of Christmas Day, specifically the Denver Broncos victory against the Kansas City Chiefs that moved them to the doorstep of the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs and the Detroit Lions loss against the Minnesota Vikings that put the Green Bay Packers in and knocked out the Lions, there now are xx matchups left with potential playoff implications based on the results of this weekend.

That list:
New York Jets at Buffalo
Detroit at Chicago
Los Angeles Chargers at Denver
Indianapolis at Houston
Tennessee at Jacksonville
Arizona at Los Angeles Rams
Green Bay at Minnesota
Miami at New England
Washington at Philadelphia
Baltimore at Pittsburgh
Seattle at San Francisco
Carolina at Tampa Bay

That is quite the list, and we'll start by pointing out four of those could become head-to-head battles for a division title:
-- L.A. Chargers-Denver ... if the Chargers defeat the Houston Texans on Saturday
-- Baltimore-Pittsburgh ... if the Ravens defeat the Green Bay Packers on Saturday AND the Steelers lost against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday
-- Seattle-San Francisco ... if the Seahawks defeat the Carolina Panthers and the 49ers defeat the Chicago Bears on Sunday
-- Carolina-Tampa Bay ... if the teams match results Sunday, Carolina against Seattle and Tampa Bay in its game against the Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium

WHERE THE DOLPHINS FIT IN

Given that they need one win to clinch the AFC East title and they're facing the lowly New York Jets, it's not a big stretch to suggest that what the Patriots will have at stake in their game against the Dolphins is the potential of landing the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.

As it stands right now, five teams have a shot at earning the No. 1 seed — Denver, New England, Jacksonville, the L.A. Chargers and Buffalo.

New England's path is winning its final two games along with Denver losing at home against the Chargers, which would give the Patriots the best record in the conference at 14-3 with everybody else then having at least four losses.

What seems likely is that the NFL would not have Denver play before the other AFC contenders with the chance to clinch the No. 1 seed because the league wants maximum drama.

And because of its location, the NFL isn't going to schedule a Denver home game at 1 p.m. ET.

If the Chargers defeat Houston on Saturday afternoon, the Week 18 matchup then would decide the AFC West title along with the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, so it would be a strong candidate to be selected as the final game of the regular season.

The other three contenders for the No. 1 seed heading into the weekend games of Week 17 all play in the Eastern time zone, so the NFL could schedule the Miami-New England, Buffalo-N.Y. Jets and Indianapolis-Tennessee matchups at 1 p.m. ET if it chose.

If there's an equally appealing NFC matchup, such as Seattle-San Francisco for the NFC West title and No. 1 seed in the conference playoffs, then the NFL could decide to put that one in prime time on Sunday and put the Chargers-Broncos matchup at 4:25 p.m. That game would not be suited for a Saturday slot because a Denver victory there would eliminate teams from contention for that No. 1 seed.

And then there's the issue of the AFC East title, which will remain in doubt until Week 18 if the Bills defeat the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday or the Patriots suffer a major upset against the Jets.

If the division title is on the line in Week 18, it's a pretty safe assumption the NFL will schedule Dolphins-Patriots and Bills-Jets at the same time.

Whether that become a 1 p.m. or 4:25 p.m. game then would depend on where things stack up for the No. 1 seed race, and the best guess here is the NFL would love having everything decided at once, meaning the most logical option would be for MIA-NE, NYJ-BUF, JAX-TEN and LAC-DEN to all be 4:25 p.m. games if there's a good NFC option for the Sunday night matchup.

What's certain is we will get more and more clarity as the weekend unfolds, starting with that Houston-L.A. Chargers game Saturday.