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Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior Writer
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — With a decided lack of touchdowns en route to an 0-2 start, Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton hasn’t said anything about needing a bunker to hunker down. But there is one available to him next week at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, as Payton tries to shake his team’s football doldrums during a first-in-team-history road trip.
The Broncos’ three-state, 10-day version of planes, trains and automobiles will have a baseball feel to it. They left the comforts of home Friday, will play Sunday at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1 p.m. ET, Raymond James Stadium, CBS), pack their gear and head to West Virginia for almost a week, then go to New Jersey for a Sept. 29 game against the New York Jets.
Payton says the trip could be a fact-finding mission to discover what a team that he has consistently called “young and hungry” can do.
“It’s not a make-or-break, but we’re going to have a better idea of where this team’s going to be after these next two weeks,” Payton said. “Sometimes that can work as a positive relative [when] your team is together the whole time … there’s still no ways around it, we’ve got to look right into the teeth of this and get better quickly.”
Records, along with the accounts of long-time employees, indicate the Broncos have not taken this type of trip during the regular season. They practiced in London for a week before their 2022 game in Wembley Stadium and have left a day or two early on occasion to get acclimated to weather or time zone changes. But what Payton has carved out for this journey is a first for Denver. And the planning started before the 2024 schedule was finalized.
“We put in a request for two of the East Coast games to be back-to-back, so when the schedule came out it happened to be Tampa and the Jets. It could have been Baltimore [where the Broncos play Nov. 3], you know,” Payton said. “The reason we put in the request was to stay in that time zone … relative than going back and forth four times.”
The Broncos also considered a stay in Florida, likely at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, before settling on The Greenbrier, a resort where Payton had taken the New Orleans Saints for training camp from 2014-16. But the scenario the Broncos are facing — consecutive games in the Eastern time zone with early kickoffs — is rare for the franchise.
Since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, the Broncos have back-to-back road games in the Eastern time zone in six seasons, with each game having an early kickoff (1 p.m. ET/11 a.m. MT). The last time the Broncos had such back-to-back Eastern time zone games was 2022. The Broncos are 5-7 overall in those back-to-back contests, having gone 0-2 in twice, 1-1 three times and 2-0 in 2012, Peyton Manning’s first season in Denver.
“I’m looking forward to it, just the camaraderie. I think we all have a unique opportunity to really get to spend time … and build those relationships that we already have,” Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II said. “I think this week is crucial because we have two tough opponents on the road. … A different landscape will definitely change the mindset, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Beyond the usual accoutrements of a scenic resort, The Greenbrier has a doomsday bunker — a former top-secret, two-level complex roughly the size of two football fields stacked on top of each other — built 720 feet under the resort’s grounds.
When it was completed in 1962, its purpose was to house Congress in the event of a nuclear attack on Washington, D.C. The bunker remained secret until 1992, when a Washington Post story revealed its existence.
“[There is] no NFL team in West Virginia, so everybody follows Mountaineer football, so we would go to The Greenbrier during spring football sometimes,” said Broncos wide receiver David Sills V, who played at West Virginia. “Beautiful facility … and I’ve been in the bunker, that was cool, so cool, for sure. … You’re at this beautiful place with golf course, the views and then you weave around and there’s this bunker. It’s like they just left and left everything the way it was.”
It’s a quirky place to find solutions for an offense that is 30th in the league in scoring (13.0 points per game) and 27th in total offense and rushing offense. Rookie quarterback Bo Nix’s four interceptions are tied for the most in the league, alongside the Colts’ Anthony Richardson.
NFL coaches have long believed in the power of bonding during an extended trip or a training camp outside of the team’s home city. But those are usually confined to training camp, joint practices in another city or international regular-season games.
“I think going on trips with your teammates and spending a large amount of time that you’re not used to spending with them is always a fun time,” Nix said regarding off-field benefits of a trip. “I’ve never been on a team trip where I was like ‘Man, I didn’t have fun’ or ‘I wish we could go home early.’ … We’ve got an important week of ahead of us … but I do think road trips are good for a team.”
Payton is more used to extended road trips than most, with hurricanes causing sporadic relocations in his time with the Saints, the most recent coming in the 2021 preseason due to Hurricane Ida.
“I do like being away for a week with the team,” Payton said. “… Those are times you get a little bit better focus, I think, and you can grow as a team.”
Along with growth, the Broncos will try to avoid the statistical death knell that comes from starting 0-3. Since 1979, only six 0-3 teams have made the playoffs. The Broncos started 0-3 last season and couldn’t make the postseason, finishing 8-9 despite having a five-game winning streak at one point.
Payton hopes this road trip will spark a repeat of what his Saints did in 2017. That season, the Saints opened 0-2 and played in Carolina in Week 3 before heading to London for a week prior to a game against the Miami Dolphins. New Orleans won both games to even its record at 2-2. The Saints eventually won the NFC South with an 11-5 record and advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs.
“There’s a little bit of déjà vu,” Payton said. “It was kind of like a two-game road trip. In other words, we were going to be gone and not coming back … and this week sets up a little like that.”
The Broncos know the importance of getting a win on the trip, as Payton has never taken a team that started 0-3 to the playoffs. He had four teams in New Orleans start 0-3 or worse, and none of them finished the season with a winning record.
“It’s going to be a great opportunity for us,” wide receiver Courtland Sutton said of the trip. “The biggest thing is us going and taking care of Tampa right now. We have a big week ahead of us. Sitting in the position that we’re sitting in, we’re the only ones that can control our direction, where we go next.”