Why don’t Broncos have bye week after London trip?

NFL teams playing internationally used to be able to call their shot on whether they returned home to a bye week The Broncos had one in when they got back from beating Jacksonville at Wembley Stadium for example Now with an ever-expanding international schedule teams can t make that decision for themselves They can request NFL authorities mentioned Thursday but it doesn t inevitably fall the way teams want As the world gets more complicated with more and more international games and all the other obligations across the schedule that bye after an international contest is not a guarantee NFL vice president of scheduling Onnie Bose explained on a conference call with reporters Thursday It s something that is certainly in play We find methods everything we ve learned we talked about the Vikings playing the two straight games over in Europe and the learnings over time of -plus years playing over in Europe the bye is less of a crucial and must-have situation The Broncos however will still find themselves in uncharted waters when they return home from their competition against the New York Jets on Oct at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to host the New York Giants on Oct There have been instances of a gang playing the weekend following an international contest Of that group play in the Eastern time zone and three in the Central The Broncos will be the first squad in NFL history to play the week after an international battle in either the Mountain or Pacific time zones Related Articles Denver Post staff predictions Pinpointing Broncos record after schedule release Broncos schedule The must-watch battle largest part boring matchup and toughest stretch for Denver Broncos schedule release Uptick in prime time slots highlights slate for Sean Payton s crew Broncos Mailbag Which Denver undrafted free agent signings are majority intriguing Broncos hire ex-Patriots scout Camren Williams in personnel role as restructuring begins Denver head coach Sean Payton isn t shy about being the first to do something he was interested in the NFL s match this fall in Berlin in part because it s the first to be played in that city but it s tough to imagine he was racing to sign up to be the first Western U S club to play the weekend after an international trip There are teams that often ask us not to have their bye So we really let the solve go either way Bose declared There s not a guarantee of a bye nor is there a guarantee of no bye It happened to work out in this situation Bose had another key factor in mind outside of the lack of a Week bye for Denver They not only host the Giants but then Dallas in Week too Significant for us They got home They re indeed home for a couple of games after that trip Bose disclosed So it s a factor and consideration Want more Broncos news Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis