NFL teams playing internationally used to be able to call their shot on whether they returned home to a bye week.<\/p>\n
The Broncos had one in 2022 when they got back from beating Jacksonville at Wembley Stadium, for example.<\/p>\n
Now, with an ever-expanding international schedule, teams can\u2019t make that decision for themselves. They can request, NFL officials said Thursday, but it doesn\u2019t always fall the way teams want.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the world gets more complicated with more and more international games and all the other obligations across the schedule, that bye after an international game is not a guarantee,\u201d NFL vice president of scheduling Onnie Bose said on a conference call with reporters Thursday. \u201cIt\u2019s something that is certainly in play. We find ways \u2014 everything we\u2019ve learned, we talked about the Vikings playing the two (straight) games over in Europe, and the learnings over time of 15-plus years playing over in Europe, the bye is less of a crucial and must-have situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Broncos, however, will still find themselves in uncharted waters when they return home from their game against the New York Jets on Oct. 12 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to host the New York Giants on Oct. 19.<\/p>\n
There have been 19 instances of a team playing the weekend following an international game. Of that group, 16 play in the Eastern time zone and three in the Central. The Broncos will be the first team in NFL history to play the week after an international game in either the Mountain or Pacific time zones.<\/p>\n
Denver head coach Sean Payton isn\u2019t shy about being the first to do something \u2014 he was interested in the NFL\u2019s game this fall in Berlin in part because it\u2019s the first to be played in that city \u2014 but it\u2019s difficult to imagine he was racing to sign up to be the first Western U.S. team to play the weekend after an international trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are teams that often ask us not to have their bye. So we really let the solve go either way,\u201d Bose said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a guarantee of a bye, nor is there a guarantee of no bye. It happened to work out in this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bose had another key factor in mind outside of the lack of a Week 7 bye for Denver: They not only host the Giants but then Dallas in Week 8, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cImportant for us: They got home. They\u2019re actually home for a couple of games after that trip,\u201d Bose said. \u201cSo it\u2019s a factor and consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n