Dolphins 2015 schedule: Away games travel distances

Last night, the NFL 2014 season finally came to an end with the conclusion of Super Bowl XLIX. The Miami Dolphins have been done since the end of December, but the league as a whole will now begin focusing on next season, rather than the postseason.

As we all shift from knowing there is still football to be played to looking forward to free agency, the Draft, and the start of the 2015 season, we take a look at the Miami schedule for next year.  While the order of the Dolphins' 16 games is not yet known, we do know who will make up those 16 opponents. Miami's schedule next year will feature their division rivals in the AFC East, the AFC South and NFC East in the league's normal rotation of division scheduling, and the teams from the AFC North and AFC West that finished in third place this past season.

That means, Miami's will play their home and away schedules against these teams:

Home:

Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, New York Jets, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Baltimore Ravens

Away:

Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, San Diego Chargers

Using that data, we can calculate the Miami miles to travel for away games this year:

In total, the Dolphins will be traveling 8,861 miles to get to their away games in 2015, or 17,722 miles round trip.  That works out to about 4,000 miles less than they traveled last year, thanks to not having an away trip to London, and not facing the NFC North in 2015.

Of course, the Dolphins do head to London in 2015, meaning there is an additional 4,421 miles they have to travel for a "home" game. The Dolphins volunteered for the home game in London this season, a game in which they will host AFC East rivals in the New York Jets, as part of their bid for a Super Bowl once the $400 million renovations to Sun Life Stadium are completed before the 2016 season.

The Dolphins actually have a fairly decent travel schedule in 2015, Other than the London game, Miami will only play two contests not in the Eastern timezone, their visit to the Tennessee Titans in Central time, and their cross-country trip to visit the San Diego Chargers out in the Pacific timezone.

The full schedule for the 2015 season, which each game placed against a date/week of the season, has not yet been set. The Dolphins, however, already know they will face the Jets in London during the league's Week 4, which will be October 4, 2015. If the league keeps with their custom of scheduling bye weeks for teams the week after a game in London, the Dolphins will have their off week during Week 5 of the season, not playing on the October 11 weekend.

The league will likely release the schedule sometime in the spring, typically in mid- to late-April.