Why the Seahawks will have the NFL’s highest air yards average in 2024

For the first time since 2010, the Seattle Seahawks have a new head coach in Mike Macdonald. For the third time in five seasons, the Seahawks will have a different offensive coordinator. Ryan Grubb made a name for himself in the college ranks at Fresno State and the University of Washington. It’s through his offense’s elite aerial attack that the Huskies, led by Heisman Trophy runner-up Michael Penix Jr, were able to make it all the way to the CFP National Championship. While Grubb has plenty of play-calling experience in college, this will be his first ever NFL job, so it’ll be interesting to see what does and does not carry over into the professional ranks.

But there’s still plenty of time to talk about what we might see from Grubb’s offense and Macdonald’s team. This article is about something completely different, although I similarly hope to see as much misdirection from Grubb’s play designs.

The NFL’s 2024-25 regular season schedule is out, and as usual there is intrigue over how many miles the teams will travel. It is geographically impossible for the Seattle Seahawks to not be near or at the top of the list of miles traveled, and this year is no exception. As always, Bookies.com’s Bill Speros has compiled the data, which includes international games with both teams needing to travel.

While Seattle is 3rd in total mileage behind the Los Angeles Chargers and Miami Dolphins, the Seahawks (and the other NFC teams) also have an extra home game. If you break it down to a per-road game basis, the Seahawks lead the NFL with an average of just over 3,227 round-trip miles, or approximately 5,679,520 air yards. Their furthest road game is over 3,000 miles away in Foxboro, home to the New England Patriots. In total, Seattle has four road games against teams in the Eastern Time Zone, as well as one in the Central Time Zone (Chicago Bears).

How does that compare to previous Seahawks seasons? Let’s take a look at the last five years:

2023: 31,600 miles (3511.11 average round-trip miles)
2022: 29,446 miles (3680.75 average round-trip miles)
2021: 28,050 miles (3116.66 average round-trip miles)
2020: 28,982 miles (3662.75 average round-trip miles)
2019: 27,540 miles (3443.5 average round-trip miles)

And so concludes another edition of this virtually annual Field Gulls tradition. Have a look at our past headlines on this same topic:

Why the Seahawks will lead the NFL in air yards this season

Seahawks have a long way to go in 2022

Seahawks won’t go through the air as much in 2021

The Seattle Seahawks are road warriors once again