The San Francisco 49ers are set to travel over 28,000 round-trip miles between cities to face the opponents on the team's 2021 schedule. That ranks as the most travel distance among NFL teams, per ESPN Sports Analytics.
— Brian Burke (@bburkeESPN) May 13, 2021
Every team from the NFC West is represented in the top seven. That mostly has to do with each team being on the West Coast. San Francisco's schedule features seven trips into different time zones.
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The Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, and Atlanta Falcons will each travel to London for a game and still did not top the 49ers or Seattle Seahawks. The New York Jets will also head overseas but were not listed among the top nine teams.
San Francisco also leads the NFL in net travel miles. That number takes each team's total travel miles and subtracts its opponents' miles traveled for home games.
Almost forgot these. More important than total travel miles: pic.twitter.com/IetnrRjMYd
— Brian Burke (@bburkeESPN) May 13, 2021
Travel numbers are inflated thanks to the addition of a 17th game for each NFL team. For San Francisco, that will be a Week 14 road trip to visit the Cincinnati Bengals — a game that would not have been on the schedule during the old 16-game format.
The 49ers will open the season with back-to-back road games against the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles. They can shave some miles off their total by staying somewhere between the two locations after Week 1.
Last season, the team stayed and practiced at The Greenbrier in West Virginia between its road games during Weeks 2 and 3.