NFL Schedule 2015: Dolphins preseason schedule set

The NFL released the 2015 Preseason schedule on Thursday, setting the four-game exhibition season for all 32 teams.  The Preseason will begin on August 9, when the Pittsburgh Steelers and Minnesota Vikings face off in the annual Hall of Fame Game (giving both teams a fifth Preseason contest). The first full week of the Preseason will be held August 13-17, with all 32 teams playing over those four days.

The Miami Dolphins will start their Preseason schedule with a road trip to visit the Chicago Bears. This marks the third straight season the Dolphins will open the preseason on the road and the 14th time the Dolphins and Bears have met in the Preseason; Chicago leads the exhibition series 8-4-1. Chicago won the last Preseason game when the teams met in the 2005 Hall of Fame Game.

Miami will remain on the road for Preseason Week 2 (August 20-24) when they visit the Carolina Panthers. The Preseason series between the two clubs is tied at 2-2, with the last game going to the Panthers in a 2012 game in Miami.

The Dolphins will open Sun Life Stadium for the first time in 2015 when the host the Atlanta Falcons in Preseason Week 3 (August 27-30). The Dolphins lead the Falcons 7-5 all time in the Preseason.

Miami will host the Preseason finale in Preseason Week 4 (September 3-4) against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This will be the 15th straight Preseason in which the Dolphins and Buccaneers meet in a Florida showdown, and the 23rd time in 24 years. Last season, the Dolphins beat the Buccaneers in Tampa.

WFOR-TV, CBS4 will once again be the preseason home of the Dolphins as each of the four preseason contests will be shown on the CBS affiliate in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale market. All preseason games will also be heard on WBGG 105.9FM and WINZ 940AM in Miami as well as across the Dolphins Radio Network.

The NFL will likely release the full season schedule later this month. The Dolphins' opponents are already known, so it is just a matter of the league piecing together the dates for each contest.

The Dolphins' 2015 slate of opponents, broken into home and away games, is:

Home:

Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, New York Jets, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Baltimore Ravens

Away:

Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, San Diego Chargers

The Dolphins' schedule is already partially set, with the club scheduled to "host" the Jets in London during the league's Week 4, which will be October 4, 2015. If the league keeps with their custom of scheduling bye weeks for teams the week after a game in London, the Dolphins will have their off week during Week 5 of the season, not playing on the October 11 weekend.