Road teams in the NFL are generally at a disadvantage on a game-to-game basis, but some of them have to travel a lot farther than others during the course of the season. That cumulative time in the air is something to take into consideration when checking NFL lines at the online BetUS Sportsbook to see if a team of interest might be adversely affected by jet lag.

Road Warriors

Some franchises just have a built-in travel component to their schedules, such as the Jaguars who have been playing a home game in London in recent seasons, or the Dolphins, who are located at least 1100 miles away from their closest AFC East opponent, the New York Jets. With road games at each of the Jets, Patriots, and Bills, the team logs close to 7000 miles of air travel every season, regardless of other road games on their schedule.

For other teams, the primary determinant on an annual basis is the NFL schedule, which dictates which divisions in each conference franchises match up against. For instance, in 2021, three of the top four and four of the top eight travelers were from the NFC West, two of the top eight were from the AFC West, with the other two in the leading eight being the Jaguars and Dolphins.

The NFC West was paired with the NFC North and AFC South for the 2021 season, resulting in the San Francisco 49ers traveling a total of over 28,000 air miles to play their road games. The Niners also had to travel to Philadelphia and Cincinnati, so it’s no surprise that they led the league in travel miles, followed closely by division foe Seattle.

The Seahawks, while not having quite as extreme a division travel burden as the Dolphins, still have to make an 1100 mile trip every season to play the Cardinals in Phoenix and 960 to meet the Rams. To add to the miles, Seattle also had to play at Pittsburgh and Washington in addition to the games that were played as part of the divisional pairings.

The Rams, who logged the fourth-highest travel distance of the season, also had to make a trip to New Jersey to play the Giants, a cool round trip of about 4900 miles. The other NFC West team on the list, the Cardinals, had an extra game at Cleveland but benefitted in another one by only heading to Dallas for a contest with the Cowboys.

Forget the Frequent Flier Miles

One division that rarely has teams at the top of the travel list is the AFC North, with its teams bunched closely between Cleveland and Baltimore, even in seasons when its members play either the AFC West or NFC West. The NFC North also has its teams in close geographic proximity, with the added advantage of having its teams situated farther west than the divisions on the coasts.

There are also individual teams that have long commutes to their division opponents that rival Miami, namely Dallas and Kansas City, but unlike the Dolphins, their locations in the middle of the country put them closer to many of their opponents in most of the divisions in the NFL. In addition, all three of those teams can reap some benefit by the fact that their division opponents have to make a long trip to play at their place every season.

While the travel miles fluctuate from season to season, most of the teams in the AFC West and NFC West will always face the challenge of spending more time in the air, primarily because the majority of NFL franchises are located east of the Mississippi River.