Bunkering down: Why the Broncos are taking an prolonged highway journey -- with a West Virginia detour

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 may be one accessible to him subsequent week at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, as Payton tries to shake his staff’s soccer doldrums throughout a first-in-team-history highway journey.

The Broncos’ three-state, 10-day model of planes, trains and vehicles can 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 every week, then go to New Jersey for a Sept. 29 game in opposition to the New York Jets.

Payton says the journey may very well be a fact-finding mission to find what a staff that he has constantly known as “younger and hungry” can do.

“It is not a make-or-break, however we will have a greater thought of the place this staff’s going to be after these subsequent two weeks,” Payton mentioned. “Typically that may work as a optimistic relative [when] your staff is collectively the entire time … there’s nonetheless no methods round it, we have got to look proper into the enamel of this and get higher rapidly.”

Information, together with the accounts of long-time staff, point out the Broncos haven’t taken the sort of journey throughout the common season. They practiced in London for every week earlier than their 2022 recreation in Wembley Stadium and have left a day or two early every so often to get acclimated to climate or time zone adjustments. 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 understand,” Payton mentioned. “The rationale we put within the request was to remain in that point zone … relative than going backwards and forwards 4 occasions.”

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 Japanese 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 highway video games within the Japanese time zone in six seasons, with every recreation having an early kickoff (1 p.m. ET/11 a.m. MT). The final time the Broncos had such back-to-back Japanese time zone video games was 2022. The Broncos are 5-7 total in these back-to-back contests, having gone 0-2 in twice, 1-1 3 times and 2-0 in 2012, Peyton Manning’s first season in Denver.

“I am trying ahead to it, simply the camaraderie. I believe all of us have a novel 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 got two robust opponents on the highway. … A distinct panorama will certainly change the mindset, so I am trying 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 dimensions of two soccer fields stacked on high of one another — constructed 720 ft below the resort’s grounds.

When it was accomplished in 1962, its function was to deal with Congress within the occasion of a nuclear assault on Washington, D.C. The bunker remained secret till 1992, when a Washington Post story revealed its existence.

“[There is] no NFL staff in West Virginia, so everyone follows Mountaineer soccer, so we’d go to The Greenbrier throughout spring soccer generally,” mentioned Broncos broad receiver David Sills V, who performed at West Virginia. “Lovely facility … and I have been within the bunker, that was cool, so cool, for positive. … You are at this stunning place with golf course, the views and then you definitely weave round and there is this bunker. It is like they only left and left every part 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 recreation) and twenty seventh in complete offense and dashing offense. Rookie quarterback Bo Nix‘s 4 interceptions are tied for probably 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 staff’s residence metropolis. However these are often confined to coaching camp, joint practices in one other metropolis or worldwide regular-season video games.

“I believe happening journeys along with your teammates and spending a considerable amount of time that you just’re not used to spending with them is at all times a enjoyable time,” Nix mentioned relating to off-field advantages of a visit. “I’ve by no means been on a staff 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 vital week of forward of us … however I do suppose highway journeys are good for a staff.”

Payton is extra used to prolonged highway 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 every week with the staff,” Payton mentioned. “… These are occasions you get a bit bit higher focus, I believe, and you’ll develop as a staff.”

Together with development, the Broncos will attempt to keep away from the statistical demise 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 profitable streak at one level.

Payton hopes this highway 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 every week previous to a recreation in opposition to the Miami Dolphins. New Orleans gained each video games to even its file at 2-2. The Saints ultimately gained the NFC South with an 11-5 file and superior to the divisional spherical of the playoffs.

“There’s a bit little bit of déjà vu,” Payton mentioned. “It was type of like a two-game highway 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 staff 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 profitable file.

“It is going to be an awesome alternative for us,” broad receiver Courtland Sutton mentioned of the journey. “The most important factor is us going and taking good care of Tampa proper now. We have now an enormous week forward of us. Sitting within the place that we’re sitting in, we’re the one ones that may management our course, the place we go subsequent.”