49ers schedule 2014: Opponents' opponents the week before

The San Francisco 49ers return for their third set of OTAs this week, hitting the field Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday to wrap up the 2014 OTAs. The team will then return for their mandatory minicamp before going their separate ways for the last chunk of the offseason. There will be media availability one day this week, and then all three days next week, but otherwise things are relatively quiet on the 49ers front.

I make my way around other SB Nation NFL sites fairly regularly, but it's even more valuable when things quiet down like this. I was over at Arrowhead Pride earlier this morning, where I came across this FanPost about the Chiefs schedule. The author broke down the Chiefs schedule looking at their opponents previous week schedule. We don't know how any of these teams will perform once the season gets going, but it's still interesting to see who they play, and what kind of travel is involved.

I decided to put together a similar table, which you can see below. The travel column on the end is if the 49ers opponent had to travel for the previous week's matchup. basically, that means, the Bears (49ers Week 2 opponent) played the Bills at home in Week 1. The Cardinals (49ers Week 3 opponent) played the Giants in New York in Week 2.

The 49ers play nobody coming off a bye week, but they do get the Saints coming off a Thursday Night Football game the previous week. That's not a bye week, but it does give the Saints a little bit of extra time to prepare for the 49ers. Additionally, the 49ers only get one team coming in on a short week, when they face a Chiefs squad coming off a Monday Night Football game at home against the Patriots. The Cardinals play Sunday Night Football the week before they face the 49ers, but that's not quite a short week.

The Seahawks appear to be the only team that more than one 49ers opponent will have faced the previous week. The Giants will travel to face the Seahawks in Week 10 before the 49ers head to New York in Week 11. The Cardinals will face the Seahawks at home before traveling to face the 49ers. We don't know how the Seahawks will be playing this season, but given the physical nature they have employed the last couple years, it will be interesting to see if the Giants and/or Cardinals are particularly banged up heading into those games.