After their final game of the 2025 campaign took place inside U.S. Bank Stadium, the Minnesota Vikings will reportedly also end the 2026 regular season inside their home building, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune's Ben Goessling on Wednesday.
In 2025, Minnesota closed out the regular season on its home field with a win over the Green Bay Packers. This time around, the Vikings will reportedly end their 2026 campaign inside U.S. Bank Stadium against the Chicago Bears.
This will be the first time since 2022 that Minnesota and Chicago will play against the other in a regular-season finale, and the last time these two teams closed out a season together in the Twin Cities was in 2021.
Minnesota Vikings will reportedly end 2026 regular season at home against the Chicago Bears
If all goes well, there's a good chance that there could be plenty at stake when the Vikings face the Bears in Week 18 next season.
Ideally, Minnesota would like to end the 2026 campaign as NFC North champions for the first time since 2022, and getting a win over Chicago in the regular-season finale might have a significant impact on that actually happening.
Regardless, the Vikings will be out for revenge in this contest after the Bears snuck out of U.S. Bank Stadium with a victory last season.
Minnesota had a 17-16 lead over Chicago with 50 seconds left in the fourth quarter of last year's battle inside U.S. Bank Stadium, and yet the Vikings still found a way to walk off the field with a loss.
Minnesota knows they could have, and should have won that game last season, and they'll be looking to make sure something like that doesn't happen again in 2026.
At the very least, it will definitely be interesting to see who will be starting at quarterback for the Vikings by the time they reach the regular-season finale against the Bears.
Most assume Kyler Murray will enter the 2026 campaign as Minnesota's starting signal-caller, but his injury history says it's far from a guarantee that he will be on the field in Week 18 next season to take on Chicago.
Fighting for playoff seeding and a divisional crown would be the Vikings' ideal scenario for next season's finale against the Bears. But if things go poorly for Minnesota in 2026, it's entirely possible that this Week 18 contest could end up being Kevin O'Connell's last as the team's head coach.
Vikings fans don't want to even think about that possibility right now, but the franchise's last head coach was fired after a regular-season finale against Chicago inside U.S. Bank Stadium, and history has a cruel way of repeating itself when it comes to Minnesota.
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