ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Broncos coach Sean Payton enjoys getting his team away from the routine at its home base and having it spend extended time on the road between away games. The team did that in 2024, spending its Week 4 practices at The Greenbrier, a tony resort in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., and it did so again last year outside of London before its Week 6 game against the New York Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
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But there appears to be no such opportunity for a getaway this year.
“I don’t know how we can do it,” Payton said this week.
“I think that it was something if the schedule put us, but I don’t see it in the schedule the way it shapes up. It just is what it is. I think we just finished doing the hotels for the away games and the travel logistics for the away games. You go from there.”
Considering that both previous trips came in the midst of solid stretches of football — the 2024 excursion was in the midst of a 5-1 run; the 2025 trek across the ocean came early in an 11-game winning streak — it’s a bad break that Payton and his team likely can’t get away to practice somewhere else.
They won’t even have a joint practice on the road, either; last year, they had one with the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., giving them a four-day trip for the practice and a subsequent preseason game.
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BRONCOS DIDN’T GET BACK-TO-BACK EAST COAST GAMES THIS YEAR
In 2024, the Broncos received consecutive games in the Eastern Time Zone at Tampa Bay and the New York Jets, affording them the opportunity to work at The Greenbrier. The team remained in Tampa for a day after its Week 3 win before heading to West Virginia and a soggy week of practice, as the remnants of Hurricane Helene battered the Appalachian Mountains, forcing the Broncos to conduct their Friday practice that week inside a tennis-and-pickleball facility.
That inconvenience didn’t affect the Broncos’ preparation adversely; two days later, they won 10-9 over the Jets. With
But this year, all of their Eastern Time Zone games are one-offs. The Broncos make their first East Coast trip to face the Carolina Panthers on Nov. 8, then return to the Eastern Time Zone 19 days later for a Black Friday game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. In between, the team gets its bye week and a home contest with Las Vegas.
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Two other East Coast trips take place in weekends bracketing Christmas. Denver plays at the Jets on Dec. 13, then heads to Foxborough, Mass. for a rematch of last season’s AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots on Jan. 2 or 3.
The Broncos could opt to head east early before one of those games and get a few days of work and team bonding in, but given that none of the trips take place before Week 9, the potential benefits are minimized compared to what they would be earlier in the campaign.
So, if the Broncos want to have a full week away from home this season, there’s only one task: Win the AFC Championship Game and get a full week of work in Southern California in advance of Super Bowl LXI in Inglewood, Calif.