The Chicago Bears will soon learn when they will play their opponents during the 2023 season, but we already know the amount of travel required throughout the year. Now that the international games have been unveiled with the Bears not being included in the slate, we know just how far they will be traveling this year to play all their games. Turns out, it’s pretty favorable compared to the rest of the league.
According to Bill Speros of Bookies.com, the Bears will travel 12,253 air miles to play all 17 games. That’s third-fewest in the league, trailing only the Green Bay Packers (11,956) and the Cincinnati Bengals (11,942). The Seattle Seahawks lead the league, needing to travel 31,600 miles. Speros calculated the data using air miles between each stadium.
How far is your @NFL team going to travel this season?
Here's the rundown — from the @Seahawks to the @Bengals and all 30 teams in between https://t.co/KwyrUMqpQw pic.twitter.com/UMHHNoQprF
— Bill Speros (@billsperos) May 10, 2023
The low total isn’t a shock for the Bears. Seeing as they’re in the middle of the country and in a division where the other three teams are only a few hundred miles from them, it makes sense they wouldn’t need to travel far for many of their games. The Bears will have a couple longer trips when they head west to face the Los Angeles Chargers and south to take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints. Otherwise, their road schedule is favorable from a distance standpoint.
Will the minimal travel help when it comes to wins and losses? It can’t hurt but it wasn’t exactly a factor last season. The Bears had a similar mileage total in 2022 according to Speros, traveling 10,086 air miles. That was once again near the bottom of the league but they finished the season with a 3-14 record, worst in the NFL.
Still, you want the team to be rested and refreshed when traveling for road games. Having shorter flights helps with that. It’s a small win for the Bears ahead of their full schedule release, which takes place Thursday evening at 7 p.m. CT.
