ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — With a determined lack of touchdowns en path to an 0-2 begin, Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton hasn’t mentioned something about needing a bunker to hunker down. However there’s one obtainable to him subsequent week at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, as Payton tries to shake his crew’s soccer doldrums throughout a first-in-team-history street journey.
The Broncos’ three-state, 10-day model of planes, trains and cars could have a baseball really feel to it. They left the comforts of residence Friday, will play Sunday on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1 p.m. ET, Raymond James Stadium, CBS), pack their gear and head to West Virginia for nearly per week, then go to New Jersey for a Sept. 29 sport towards the New York Jets.
Payton says the journey may very well be a fact-finding mission to find what a crew that he has constantly known as “younger and hungry” can do.
“It is not a make-or-break, however we’ll have a greater concept of the place this crew’s going to be after these subsequent two weeks,” Payton mentioned. “Generally that may work as a constructive relative [when] your crew is collectively the entire time … there’s nonetheless no methods round it, we have to look proper into the tooth of this and get higher shortly.”
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Information, together with the accounts of long-time workers, point out the Broncos haven’t taken the sort of journey throughout the common season. They practiced in London for per week earlier than their 2022 sport in Wembley Stadium and have left a day or two early once in a while to get acclimated to climate or time zone modifications. However what Payton has carved out for this journey is a primary for Denver. And the planning began earlier than the 2024 schedule was finalized.
“We put in a request for 2 of the East Coast video games to be back-to-back, so when the schedule got here out it occurred to be Tampa and the Jets. It may have been Baltimore [where the Broncos play Nov. 3], you already know,” Payton mentioned. “The explanation we put within the request was to remain in that point zone … relative than going forwards and backwards 4 instances.”
The Broncos additionally thought of a keep in Florida, probably on the IMG Academy in Bradenton, earlier than deciding on The Greenbrier, a resort the place Payton had taken the New Orleans Saints for coaching camp from 2014-16. However the situation the Broncos are going through — consecutive video games within the Jap time zone with early kickoffs — is uncommon for the franchise.
For the reason that NFL-AFL merger in 1970, the Broncos have back-to-back street video games within the Jap time zone in six seasons, with every sport having an early kickoff (1 p.m. ET/11 a.m. MT). The final time the Broncos had such back-to-back Jap time zone video games was 2022. The Broncos are 5-7 general in these back-to-back contests, having gone 0-2 in twice, 1-1 thrice and 2-0 in 2012, Peyton Manning’s first season in Denver.
“I am wanting ahead to it, simply the camaraderie. I believe all of us have a singular alternative to essentially get to spend time … and construct these relationships that we have already got,” Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II mentioned. “I believe this week is essential as a result of we’ve two robust opponents on the street. … A unique panorama will certainly change the mindset, so I am wanting ahead to it.”
Past the standard accoutrements of a scenic resort, The Greenbrier has a doomsday bunker — a former top-secret, two-level advanced roughly the scale of two soccer fields stacked on prime of one another — constructed 720 ft below the resort’s grounds.
When it was accomplished in 1962, its goal was to accommodate Congress within the occasion of a nuclear assault on Washington, D.C. The bunker remained secret till 1992, when a Washington Put up story revealed its existence.
“[There is] no NFL crew in West Virginia, so all people follows Mountaineer soccer, so we might go to The Greenbrier throughout spring soccer generally,” mentioned Broncos large receiver David Sills V, who performed at West Virginia. “Lovely facility … and I have been within the bunker, that was cool, so cool, for certain. … You are at this stunning place with golf course, the views and you then weave round and there is this bunker. It is like they only left and left every little thing the way in which it was.”
It is a quirky place to seek out options for an offense that’s thirtieth within the league in scoring (13.0 factors per sport) and twenty seventh in complete offense and dashing offense. Rookie quarterback Bo Nix’s 4 interceptions are tied for essentially the most within the league, alongside the Colts’ Anthony Richardson.
NFL coaches have lengthy believed within the energy of bonding throughout an prolonged journey or a coaching camp outdoors of the crew’s residence metropolis. However these are normally confined to coaching camp, joint practices in one other metropolis or worldwide regular-season video games.
“I believe happening journeys together with your teammates and spending a considerable amount of time that you simply’re not used to spending with them is at all times a enjoyable time,” Nix mentioned concerning off-field advantages of a visit. “I’ve by no means been on a crew journey the place I used to be like ‘Man, I did not have enjoyable’ or ‘I want we may go residence early.’ … We have got an essential week of forward of us … however I do assume street journeys are good for a crew.”
Payton is extra used to prolonged street journeys than most, with hurricanes inflicting sporadic relocations in his time with the Saints, the latest coming within the 2021 preseason attributable to Hurricane Ida.
“I do like being away for per week with the crew,” Payton mentioned. “… These are instances you get a bit bit higher focus, I believe, and you’ll develop as a crew.”
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Together with progress, the Broncos will attempt to keep away from the statistical dying knell that comes from beginning 0-3. Since 1979, solely six 0-3 groups have made the playoffs. The Broncos began 0-3 final season and could not make the postseason, ending 8-9 regardless of having a five-game successful streak at one level.
Payton hopes this street journey will spark a repeat of what his Saints did in 2017. That season, the Saints opened 0-2 and performed in Carolina in Week 3 earlier than heading to London for per week previous to a sport towards the Miami Dolphins. New Orleans gained each video games to even its document at 2-2. The Saints finally gained the NFC South with an 11-5 document and superior to the divisional spherical of the playoffs.
“There’s a bit little bit of déjà vu,” Payton mentioned. “It was sort of like a two-game street journey. In different phrases, we have been going to be gone and never coming again … and this week units up a bit like that.”
The Broncos know the significance of getting a win on the journey, as Payton has by no means taken a crew that began 0-3 to the playoffs. He had 4 groups in New Orleans begin 0-3 or worse, and none of them completed the season with a successful document.
“It will be a terrific alternative for us,” large receiver Courtland Sutton mentioned of the journey. “The most important factor is us going and caring for Tampa proper now. We’ve an enormous week forward of us. Sitting within the place that we’re sitting in, we’re the one ones that may management our route, the place we go subsequent.”
